Sonic Adventure Infinity
by ShadowRuler55
Summary: When Sonic and his friends go on a vacation, they expect a good vacation. However, things are about to get ugly. Eggman's back to try to ruin his vacation, Amy doesn't trust Sonic anymore, and a new and evil hedgehog is trying to rule the world! R&R!
1. Vacation

Vacation

Vacation

This day…

This was the perfect day to go riding with the wind. And that is what Sonic had the thought of doing today.

The wind was blowing fast and hard, and Sonic couldn't wait to go out, smell the fresh air, and get going. It was a while since Sonic defeated Eggman (again), so Sonic was bored. It seemed like defeating Eggman numerous times is what he lived on, and he couldn't understand why, but that was his life.

Still, Sonic enjoyed taking a break from stopping Eggman once in a while. And if only today was the day that Eggman finally decided to give up on world domination, Sonic would be the luckiest hedgehog of all.

However, today was different.

Sonic was running through the Sahara Desert, when suddenly, a plane was flying low to him. It was Tails, Knuckles, and surprisingly, Amy. Amy had a bouquet of flowers, and hidden inside one of those flowers was a ring. She was planning to propose to Sonic. She wasn't expecting him to say yes, but heck it was worth a try.

_"Great, like I need her again,"_ Sonic thought. _"What is it with her and her obsession on marrying me?"_

"Sonic!!" Amy yelled.

"Hey there Amy!" Sonic yelled back. Sonic had a dark feeling of what was going to happen next.

"Sonic, there is something I need to tell you." Amy said to him.

"What might that be?" he said to her. However, he pretty much knew of what she was going to say.

"Well, you know how I follow you a lot, and how you keep running from me, and…"

"Get to the point." Sonic said impatiently.

"Well, I love you and will you… will you…" Amy had trouble putting the words together, but before she could,

**WHAM! **Sonic ran right into a rock because he wasn't paying attention and didn't see it.

"Marry me." Amy finished her sentence. The plane was far from Sonic now. Tails and Knuckles chuckled at the sight. However, Amy looked at them both sternly as to say: "That's not funny!" At the sight of Amy's face both of them stopped chuckling immediately. Tails flew back to Sonic to make sure he was OK. When he got there, Sonic was nearly plunged into the rock, but he still got out safely. However, Amy treated him like he was on the verge of death.

"I'm OK Amy! Jeez you don't have to smother me like that!" Sonic yelled.

"What do you mean smother? You nearly killed yourself because you ran into the rock at about 10000 miles per hour!" Amy yelled back.

"Whatever," Sonic said. "Did you guys want to tell me something?" He was looking at Tails and Knuckles now.

"I don't," Knuckles said. "But Tails does."

"Sonic, do you want to go on a vacation?" Tails asked.

"Um, let's see. I'm already on my vacation, so no." Sonic replied.

Knuckles nearly laughed at the response. "This is your vacation?!" He yelled. "This doesn't look fun at all!"

"Maybe not to you, but it is to me." Sonic said. "Anyways, I'm not interested in going."

"You mean you don't want to go to my beach house and just relax there?" Tails asked.

"Beach house?" Sonic asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Every summer I have a beach house that I reserve, and then the gang and I, well that is the gang except you, we just relax there."

Sonic was shocked. "You mean to tell me that all these years you knew you had a beach house you didn't bother to tell me?! Why?"

"Well, pretty much for the same reason you don't want to go now." Tails said.

"Well now I am interested in going," Sonic said. "Are we going in your plane?" he asked.

"Oh no, we're just going to fly to the airport in my plane," Tails said. "We're going to fly on an actual airplane."

"A-an actual a-airp-p-plane?" Sonic stuttered. Sonic was afraid of flying. "Why do we have to do this?"

"Oh don't be such a baby Sonic." Knuckles groaned.

"I'm not a baby!" Sonic yelled.

"Okay, both of you stop it right now!" Amy yelled.

"What are we waiting for? The rest of the gang is at the airport already." Tails said.

When everybody got in, Sonic was wondering what Amy had to say. He thought he knew what she was going to say, but he still wasn't sure.

"Amy, what was it you wanted to say to me earlier?" he asked her.

Amy thought about this for a moment and wanted to answer that, but then she thought she had lost all hope about proposing to Sonic. She thought it was never going to happen. At last she answered "Nothing."

_"Liar." _Sonic thought.

Before they left, Amy took the ring from her bouquet and threw it in the sand. She shed a tear, but no one noticed.

As they were flying, Amy gave the bouquet of flowers to Sonic. Sonic at least showed gratitude to Amy and said they were great and they smelled good. He also thanked her for them too. She was happy she made him happy for once.

They got to the airport; to see that Cream, Cheese (her little chao friend), Rouge, and even Omega were there, yet Team Chaotix and Shadow weren't there. Everybody was there early, so they were able to get first class seats. As soon as the plane left the airport, Sonic was going crazy and he was itching to get back on the ground. It took everybody else just to slow him down. Sonic was nearly taped to the seat. Sitting next to him was none other than Amy. Sonic said to Amy that if she freed him from the tape and stopped the plane, he would then marry her. She almost fell for this, but then she was stopped by Cream.

"Oh calm down Sonic. It's not bad at all. In fact, Knuckles was right, you are a baby."

"I'm not a baby!" Sonic yelled.

"Aw, is the baby going to cry?" she joked.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." Sonic said sarcastically.

"C'mon Sonic. If it makes you feel better were almost there." she said.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"Yeah, I've got a plane radar showing our destination and were the island is. According to this, we are about 7 miles away from the island."

"You're not lying to me, right?" Sonic asked.

"Of course not! When would I lie to you?"

"This morning." he replied gloomily.

Amy knew what he was talking about, but she felt like it was no big deal. "So?" she replied. "It wasn't that big of a deal."

"Ah, I guess your right, but let's talk about something else this subject is making us both sad." he said.

"You're right," she said. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"You've been there before what is it like?" he asked.

Before Amy could answer the sound speaker turned on and said:

_**Attention passengers. We have now currently arrived at Paradise Island. If you look out your window now, you can see the entire island. Please fasten your seatbelts now as we board the Paradise Island Airport. We hope you enjoyed your flight and have a nice time on the island.**_

_"Oh, I enjoyed it alright."_ Sonic thought sarcastically.

Knuckles was sleeping during the flight, so Cheese had to wake him up, Rouge, Cream, Cheese, and Omega were watching a movie that they all highly enjoyed, and Tails was tinkering with a few mechanics.

At last Amy took the tape off of Sonic, and Sonic rushed out of the plane as fast as he could.

"I'm free!!" Sonic said joyfully.

"Don't get too excited hon," Rouge said. "Your going to be taped back on that seat on they way home."

Sonic groaned.  
They got out of the airport, and they were greeted by a nice house on a cliff over the beachside. Under the cliff was a little bar area with nice tables and chairs.

"Tails, is this the place?" Sonic asked. He was pretty much dumbfounded by the sight of this magnificent place.

"Yep, this is it, and the bar is only reserved for us." Tails said.

Sonic was speechless. "Wow!"

"I think your going to get use to this place." Knuckles said.

_"Yes I am." _Sonic thought happily.


	2. Return of a Rival

Return of a Rival

Return of a Rival

The first stop Sonic made was the bar because he was thirsty.

"If you are thirsty now, then why didn't you have a drink on the flight?" Rouge asked.

"Well, it's kinda' hard to drink something when your hands are taped to the seat!" Sonic said.

"That girlfriend of yours could've held the cup for you." Rouge replied back.

Sonic couldn't come back with anything else. He knew he was beat.

"Well, I wasn't thirsty on the flight, but now I am." Sonic said. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

Rouge rolled her eyes to the response. "You make no sense at all." Rouge said.

"I try." Sonic said as he took a sip from the kiddy cocktail.

Bored, Rouge walked away.

As Sonic was drinking his cocktail he looked up at the house and wondered what the sunset over the beach would look like on top of the house. From the seat he was sitting at, it looked terrific. He watched the glistening sand on the beach and how it sparkled. He watched the water, but then shuddered because he knew that he couldn't swim, but he had to admit it did look decent to swim in.

But he still couldn't help but wonder what laid ahead for him on this vacation.

"Excuse me miss," Sonic said to the waitress.

The waitress was a tall, slender fox who had brunette hair in a ponytail. She wore red lipstick with bellbottom pants. "My name's Starlet by the way." She said.

"Oh, sorry Starlet." Sonic said apologetically.

"That's all right. I'm not that good in introducing myself first. So is this your first time here on Paradise Island?" Starlet asked.

"Yeah, this place seems so amazing. Do you work for Tails during the summertime?"

"You know him?" Starlet asked.

"Well, yeah. He's one of my best friends."

"To answer your question, yes, I do work for him during the summertime. We first met at a bar somewhere in Chicago."

"What was Tails doing at a bar?" Sonic asked. "Tails doesn't drink, does he?" Sonic asked unsurely.

Starlet giggled. "No, he doesn't. At that time he had his bar all set up, but the only problem was that he needed a waitress. He wanted a waitress because he was unsure with a guy attending. At last he found me working at a bar in Chicago. Chicago was an awesome place, but the bar was a dump. It was the worst job ever, and the worst part was is that I got very little pay. However, Tails saved me from that job by asking me to come to his summerhouse and work at his bar. With no hesitation, I came here, and, well here I am."

"So, long story short, you hated your job and decided to come here instead." Sonic said.

"Yeah, that's correct." She paused. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! You called me over for a drink and I rambled on about my long story! What will you have?" Starlet asked.

"Just give me a refill on my kiddy cocktail." Sonic said.

"Alright then." She said.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Starlet picked it up. When she was done talking, she gave Sonic the refill and talked to him again.

"That was Tails. He was getting worried because you were here for so long and wanted to make sure you were all right."

"You did tell him that I'm all right?" Sonic asked

"Oh of course. Oh, and he did mention two things: One, he said he wanted me to tell you that this one girl was really upset that you were gone for a long time, but she still likes you." Starlet said.

_"Amy."_ Sonic thought.

"Two, he said that if you weren't busy, he wanted you to go down to the beach to spend time with them."

"Alright then, I'm on my way!" Sonic said.

"Wait!" Starlet yelled. "Do you want me to keep your cocktail cold, or just dump it out?"

"Leave it cold. I'll be sure to come back soon." Sonic said in a cool way. He gave her a wink, and then he off in a flash.

Starlet was smitten. No doubt about it, she was in love. _"Tails was right," _she thought _"he is one speed demon."_

Back at the shore, the gang was having a good time. Everybody except Sonic and Amy were either surfing or water skiing. Sonic and Amy just decided to run around and enjoy the fresh air by the shore. Even though they were just running around trying to get each other, they still had a good time.

Above the shoreline rose a hill with trees all on the hill. From that place stood someone who was watching everyone have a good time, but yet didn't participate. No one could see him, but they weren't paying attention either, yet it was someone they knew.

Unexpectedly, it was Shadow. He felt embarrassed on going on this vacation with the gang, mostly Sonic, so he decided to follow them and go there on his own. Surprisingly, this was his first time here on Paradise Island also.

"_Hmp." _Shadow thought to himself. _"I'm surprised that blue hedgehog and that pink hedgehog are still together. I thought it was over already. But never mind that. This place is a little better than I thought. But then on the other hand, this place is lame. Still, I haven't checked the entire island at all. I'm sure they have to have something awesome."_

Just then, Sonic and Amy started heading towards Shadow.

"_Oh great. Now he's coming this way. In fact, I bet he's not even going to notice me when he passes me by. Not that I want him to, though." _Shadow thought.

And just like Shadow predicted, Sonic didn't notice Shadow when he passed him by.

"_Pathetic hedgehog. I can so outrun him. When he finally notices that I'm here, I'm going to race him and kick his butt to finally prove that I am the Ultima…"_

"**I finally got you Sonic!" **Amy yelled.

Shadow turned his head to look her way then…

**BAM!** Amy ran into Shadow thinking he was Sonic. They both flew in the air, and then Amy landed on the sand still holding Shadow, while Shadow flew headfirst into the sand. His head got stuck in the sand.

When Amy saw Shadow's black fur, she knew she made a mistake.

"Oh sorry, I thought you were Sonic." Amy apologized.

"NOW YOU REALIZE THAT?!" Shadow said furiously in the sand.

Ignoring the anger in Shadow's voice, Amy couldn't help but laugh. Hearing the laughter, Shadow calmed down, but was still impatient that Amy wasn't helping.

"Would you just help me please?" Shadow said trying to be as kind as possible.

Amy was serious now. "Oh, sure." She said. She still didn't know it was Shadow.

After Shadow got out, he got the sand out of his ears, and then Amy realized it was Shadow.

"Shadow?" Amy asked. "How did you get here?"

"I snuck on the plane when that wimpy hedgehog of yours was panicking to get off." Shadow replied.

"You know you could've just used Chaos Control to get here." Amy said.

Shadow was a little embarrassed to say this. "I was hungry." He said.

Amy almost laughed again, but this time she held it in.

"By the way, where is that blue hedgehog?" Shadow asked.

"Amy! Are you all right?" It was Sonic.

"Oh, hi Sonic. Look who's here!" Amy shouted.

Sonic froze. "Shadow?"

"Well, well, well. Long time no see, Sonic the Hedgehog." Shadow said grimly.


	3. Return of a Foe

Return of a Foe, and in With The New

Return of a Foe, and in With The New

Sonic was stunned. It was one of the people he didn't want to see, especially on his vacation. However, he was the one who treated Shadow like a friend, so it really didn't matter to him that much, but this did annoy Shadow a lot.

"So Shadow, why did you come here?" Sonic asked.

"That's none of your business!" Shadow replied in a mean way.

"_Sigh. He hasn't changed a bit since we last saw each other." _Sonic thought to himself.

"Well, I'm leaving you guys. I'm going to leave this situation between you two." Amy said.

"Alright then." They both said.

With that, Amy left.

"So Shadow, guess it's just you and me, you wanna' do something together?" Sonic asked.

Shadow just simply punched Sonic in the face, knocking Sonic into the sand.

"I guess that means no, right?" Sonic asked weakly.

"Yep." Shadow said. "But now I changed my mind, I'm bored."

"Alright, what do you wanna' do, buddy?" Sonic asked excited.

Shadow punched him in the face again.

"Don't _ever_ call me "buddy" again." Shadow said.

"Well noted." Sonic said weakly.

It was near dusk, and Sonic couldn't think of anything to do at this time. Shadow really didn't care of what to do, as long as it cured his boredom.

"I got an idea!" Shadow said finally.

"What?" Sonic asked.

"Let's fight." Shadow said.

"Oh come on Shadow! As soon as you get here you automatically want to fight, and besides, it's our vacation!" Sonic said.

"So?" Shadow punched Sonic in the shoulder this time.

"OWW!" Sonic said. "You punched me, Shadow!"

"No I didn't!" Shadow replied. He punched him again.

"OWW!" "You did it again!"

"No, I didn't!" Shadow replied again. He punched Sonic a third time.

"OWW!" "STOP DOING THAT!" Sonic replied furious.

"Stop doing what?" Shadow replied. Again, he punched Sonic.

"Alright that's it! You're going down Shadow!" Sonic replied.

Shadow was having a blast fighting Sonic. Even Sonic enjoyed it a little bit. It turned out to be a draw, but Shadow almost beat Sonic in the end. When they were done fighting, they headed back to the house. It was almost 8:00, so this was about the time that Sonic could explore the house, but of course it would only take him about 5 seconds to explore, despite the fact that the house was huge.

"So Shadow, why did you keep on punching me?" Sonic asked.

Shadow gave him a look as to say: "You know why."

"Oh, that's why. Because you knew that I wouldn't agree to fighting you, so you decided to start one yourself."

Shadow nodded.

"SONIC THE HEDGEHOG WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

It was Amy. She had been expecting him home a while ago, but then got worried where he was.

"Amy, look, I'm fine." Sonic tried to persuade her that he was fine.

"You. Inside. NOW!" Amy demanded. "You can come in too Shadow." She calmed down.

"Um, okay." Shadow said.

All three of them went inside the house, and it was magnificent. Sonic couldn't believe his eyes, and neither could Shadow. Sonic was about to explore, but Amy stopped him because she wanted to talk to him. Shadow taunted him because he was going to explore the house first. This annoyed Sonic. As usual, it took Shadow about 5 seconds to explore the house. At last, Amy and Sonic talked in the family room, while everybody else was down in the basement playing ping-pong or arcade games.

"Sonic," Amy began, "why do you make me worried like this?"

"Why should you worry?" Sonic replied. "I can take care of myself just fine."

_"Sure you can." _Amy thought sarcastically.

"It's just that…" Amy paused. "That you never take enough responsibility for yourself."

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"Well, it's just that your outside fighting Eggman all the time, or whatever evil is out there, and you think that you can do it all on your own, while I'm stuck back home, wondering when you'll come home, or **if **you'll _ever_ come home."

Sonic took a drink from his cocktail.

"What point are you trying to get at?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know if I could trust you anymore." Amy replied gloomily.

Sonic spat out the cocktail that was in his mouth. "What?!" Sonic asked in a surprised way. "Of course you can trust me!"

"I don't know Sonic," Amy replied "I'm just not seeing it."

With that, she walked downstairs.

Sonic explored the house as usual. Even though he thought it was awesome, it still didn't lift his spirits. Sonic replied Amy's words over and over again to himself. _"I'm just not seeing it,"_ he said. _"What does she mean by that?"_ By now he was pacing back and forth in the living room, pondering on what Amy meant. However, he did not know where Eggman was. In fact, Eggman was in space, in his regular Eggman ship, using radar to try to find Sonic. He was checking the area where Sonic usually is, but couldn't find him. With Eggman was the Chaotix team, captured. There was Charmy the Bee, Espio the Chameleon, and then there was the head of the crew, Vector the Crocodile.

"Okay, so, why are we here again?" Charmy asked.

Eggman chuckled. "Because I figured if I captured the last of the crew, no one would be tracking me down." Eggman replied.

Eggman slammed the keyboard; frustrated that he couldn't find Sonic. "Where is he?!" Eggman said angrily.

"Don't ask us, we don't know." Vector said.

"I'm not asking for your opinion!" Eggman yelled.

"Gee, calm down you old man." Espio said quietly. He tried to make sure Eggman didn't hear this, but unfortunately for him, he did hear it.

"If you don't keep quiet you're going to be released into space, and it would be a shame to because there is no air!" Eggman yelled again.

Suddenly, the radar started beeping.

"Ah, so the radar found Sonic. Let's find out where he is!" Eggman said excitedly.

Eggman checked the radar to find that Sonic was on the island. "Oh so Sonic is taking a vacation huh? Time to crash it!" Eggman said.

"Uh, the point of Sonic going on a vacation is to get away from you so why do you want to go after him now?" Charmy asked.

"Because then I wouldn't be doing my job as an evil genius!" Eggman replied.

"_Whatever." _Charmy thought.

Eggman started to head towards Earth. When he was in the atmosphere he started heading towards Paradise Island.

He was able to land quietly on the island without anybody noticing, but it was nighttime, so there was no one around.

"Light's out." Eggman said, and the ship turned off immediately.

_"So Eggman finally arrived." _A dark figure said. _"Tomorrow will be the day he dies, and all of Sonics' friends will die, as well for Sonic himself. Then this pathetic world will be mine!" Hahhaaahaahha!"_


	4. The Hedgehog Named Cinerate

The Hedgehog named Cinerate

The Hedgehog named Cinerate

Meanwhile back at the house, it was time for bed as well. Sonic still couldn't figure out what Amy meant, but he needed to get some sleep. Unfortunately for him, he was sharing a bedroom with Shadow. Still, the bedroom was quite pleasant. It had a door connected to the bathroom, a few dressers, two hammocks for both Sonic and Shadow, a mini couch, and a bunk bed, which was very comfortable.

"I call top bunk!" Shadow yelled almost immediately.

"Fine." Sonic said tired. He was not in the mood right now to argue with Shadow.

During the night Sonic was sleeping like a rock. Despite the comfort in the top bed, Shadow was tired, but not asleep. He decided to get some fresh air, but to his surprise, Amy was out there too.

"So, uh, how did the talk go earlier?" Shadow asked.

"Not as I had planned it to be." Amy replied. "Sonic doesn't get of how much he worries me whenever he goes out to do his regular "saving the world routine." "Shadow, this might be a stupid question to ask you but, do you ever worry about Sonic not coming back."

Shadow gave a look of disbelief and confusion. "No, not really, no."

"Why not?" Amy asked.

"Well see that's the thing, I don't know, but I think it's just because I do believe that Sonic can take care of himself _at times_, but when he actually doesn't come back, well, I guess I don't care because if he chooses to do this then, that's his choice, but sometimes I do care."

"Wow." Amy said dumbfounded.

"Maybe you should take Sonic's advice. Maybe he can take care of himself, but we'll just see."

"Thanks for talking to me Shadow." Amy said.

"You're welcome, I guess." Shadow replied.

Then, they both walked inside together.

"_Aw, isn't that sweet?"_ The dark figure said again. _"A lovely couple, which makes me want to kill them!" _This figure was actually a hedgehog named Cinerate. He had quills just like Sonic, only a bit larger. The top quill was pointed upwards; as well as the other quills below the top one. He had devilish eyes, a lightning bolt on his right eye, and a weird marking on his head that was colored red. He also had other markings on his quills colored red and white. He had a fire marking on his chest, which was his symbol.

Standing next to him was his dinosaur named Slasher. Slasher growled at the sight of Shadow.

"_Hmm. It seems like it was only yesterday since I last saw Shadow."_ At this moment, Cinerate was having a flashback.

50 years ago…

The Space Colony Ark…

This was the place where Prof. Gerald Robotnik created his inventions. It was located in outer space, isolated from everybody else on Earth. The only friend he had up there was his granddaughter, Maria. Yet, for some reason, he felt alone.

"I want to create a friend for my own, Maria. Do you think I should do it?" he asked her.

"Oh, grandpa, do you think it's safe? I mean, you could miscalculate." She replied.

"Nonsense. I'm going to need your help, though. But with you helping me, there is no way I will miscalculate."

"Thank you grandpa! I'll be willing to help you anytime."

"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's get started!" He said.

Right away, they got started.

They were working on a hedgehog, but it wasn't Shadow, but it wasn't Cinerate either. This hedgehog's name was Static. He had lightning bolt symbols on his quills and body, and had some other designs. He was yellow, blue, and a little bit of black. The professor and Maria agreed that this was a perfect friend. Indeed he was. He was a good hedgehog that never thought of being evil, and he had a strong sense of justice. He could control electricity and water. But the professor wanted another friend. Maria warned him not to do it, but he insisted in making another friend.

After the professor and Maria got done with the designs, the professor needed to make DNA. But to make it quicker, he copied Static's DNA and decided to give it to there newly created hedgehog, Cinerate. Little did he know that this would lead to disaster.

"Grandpa, what's going on?" Maria asked.

"I don't know Maria. The computer is somehow altering Static's copied DNA. That can't be good!"

"Why not?"

"Because if Static's DNA is altered, then that could mean Cinerate will turn out evil!"

"Can't you stop it?" Maria asked.

"No, it's already going into Cinerate. Our only option is…"

**BOOM!**

Cinerate's capsule exploded.

"Where am I?" he asked.

The professor and Maria just stood there, wondering what he would do next.

"Hmm. No matter. I'll just blow this place up and anybody on this Ark!"

Cinerate then immediately started causing destruction on the Ark, damaging it badly. However, not long after he started destroying the place, Static came to help. Static's efforts were helpful, but it was causing more damage to the Ark. The professor then sent those two out in space. They were able to breathe in space, but they couldn't control the direction of where they were going.

"I was wrong to add another friend." The professor said sadly.

"Don't worry grandpa. We'll create another one, but this time, he won't be good or evil."

This time the professor took Static and Cinerate's DNA and mixed them together. This is when they created Shadow.

Back in space Cinerate and Static were still fighting, until they reached an unknown planet. This planet had a high gravitational pull, which sent them both down to the planet at a fast speed.

Static then slashed Cinerate with electric claws, making a lightning bolt slash in Cinerate's right eye. Then they both plunged to the core of the planet. They were never heard of again, for a while. Cinerate broke free of the planet's gravitational pull, then headed towards the Space Colony Ark. There, he met Shadow.

"I know about your friend Maria, Shadow," Cinerate said. "If you just let me destroy you now she will be spared."

Just then, the G.U.N forces arrived, and busted down the door chasing Maria. The door landed on Cinerate, stunning him. Shadow then threw Cinerate out the side window, and then he hit Cinerate with a chaos spear attack at such a strong force, blowing Cinerate away into space. Shadow thought he was dead, and that he would never have to deal with him again.

At that ending, Cinerate's flashback ended.

"Now it's time for my revenge. I will kill you Shadow, and all your little friends, _especially Sonic The Hedgehog."_


	5. Inside Cinerate's Lair

Inside Cinerate's Lair

Inside Cinerate's Lair

The next day, Sonic felt refreshed as ever. Both him and Tails were wondering what to do, though.

"Isn't there something else we could do that's **NOT **related to water?" Sonic asked.

"Not that I can think of." Tails replied.

Sonic looked around. There was nothing he could see, except for a volcano in the background. Suddenly, Sonic's face lit up. He had an idea.

Amy knew that look. _"Uh oh," _she thought. _"Looks like Sonic has a crazy idea again."_

"Hey Tails, have you ever gone up to that volcano before?" Sonic asked.

"No. We don't think that volcano has anything in it." Tails replied.

"Well, why don't we go up and see?"

"Sonic, no!" Amy said.

"C'mon Amy. Lighten up a little bit. Just go have fun, and let the wind take you where you want to go!" Sonic said. With that remark, he sped off like the wind.

"I don't know how you can handle that kid." Rouge said to Amy.

Amy sighed. "I don't know either."

Everyone else left, except for Rouge and Shadow. When everyone else was out of sight, Eggman then popped out of the bushes behind Rouge and Shadow.

"I gotcha now Sonic!" Eggman said as he shot a net at Shadow. When Shadow got caught, he was furious.

"WHY DOES EVERYBODY THINK I'M SONIC?!" Shadow yelled.

"Oh. Hello Rouge. Hello Shadow." Eggman said as he removed the net from Shadow.

"Pleasure meeting you again, Doctor." Rouge said.

"I don't have time for this." Shadow grunted as he walked off.

"Wait! Do you know where Sonic is Shadow?" Eggman yelled.

Shadow stopped. This was the perfect opportunity for Shadow to get rid of Eggman. With that in mind, Shadow smirked.

"Uh, yeah, he headed off towards the volcano." Shadow said.

"Thanks. I'll get there on the main path." Eggman said.

"Uh, wait! You **COULD **go on the main path, but I know a shortcut. I'll show you." Shadow lied.

Rouge knew Shadow was lying, and she knew why as well. He just wanted to get rid of Eggman.

"Um, okay I'll follow you then." Eggman said. He was a little suspicious of Shadow because he knew that Shadow was a hard person to trust.

"Right this way Doctor." Shadow said.

All three of them left, with Eggman not knowing what Shadow was planning.

Meanwhile, Sonic and his friends arrived at the volcano, when a female fox greeted them.

"Welcome to the famous Paradise Island volcano." she said.

"It's a touring attraction?" Knuckles asked.

"Oh no. We go inside the volcano, where it holds the famous Air Ride attraction in the world! Beginners sometimes go to this place to practice, but you can also try challenging races." She said.

"Cool." Sonic said. "Hurry up gang! I'm anxious to try this out!"

Everyone else was too. They hurried inside, where it was very hot in there because of the lava.

"Omega, how hot is this lava?" Sonic asked. Omega was a robot who could shoot many different kinds of guns, and could also detect room temperature.

"De-tec-ting la-va at ov-er 3000 deg-rees." Omega said in a robotic way.

Tails gulped. Everyone chose their extreme gear and was getting ready to go.

"Quick question." Tails said afraid. "What if we run out of air in our extreme gear?"

"Oh, you don't." the female fox said. "This type of extreme gear has unlimited air, so you won't run out of air."

"Whew." Tails said relieved.

"Just don't fall off, or you will be burned terribly." She said.

_"OR DIE!" _Tails thought terrified.

The fox started the countdown. "On your marks, get set, GO!"

Everyone started off quick. Sonic was having the time of his life, enjoying every minute of it. Knuckles was in the lead, for a while, until Amy came up and knocked her board against his. He didn't fall, but he slowed down. Sonic, however, sped past both Knuckles and Amy, giving him first place.

"Aren't you enjoying this Amy?" Sonic yelled as he sped past her.

"Oh yeah, just great!" Amy said sarcastically.

Meanwhile in the jungle, Eggman was really getting suspicious about Shadow. It seemed like they were walking forever for some "shortcut."

"Shadow, are you sure this is a shortcut?" Eggman asked.

"Relax, we'll get there soon." Shadow lied. Rouge rolled her eyes to this response.

"Whoa, hold on," Shadow said. "I think we're in the right place. Yep, this is it. Up forward is the volcano. You first Doctor." Shadow was trying to keep a good poker face. In other words, he tried not to smirk.

"Alright then, I can't wait to get my hands on that hedgehoooooooo**oo****oo****oo****oo****oog**!"

**THUMP!**

Eggman fell into a chasm over a river.

"Hmph! See ya' later Doctor!" Shadow yelled.

"Shadow, when I get my hands on you!" Eggman yelled back.

"Jeez. You just never learn do you?" Rouge said.

"I don't care. As long as the doctor is out of my way, everything is fine." Shadow replied.

"Whatever." Rouge said.

Meanwhile in the volcano, Sonic was far ahead of everybody, until he came up to a fork in the road. On the right was a regular pathway, while on the left was the same thing, except there was a sign that said, or was supposed to say "shortcut," except the r was backwards and there was an e at the end of shortcut. Still, Sonic went to the left path. Everybody behind him went that way too, even though they didn't see Sonic go that way.

As Sonic was going down this supposed "shortcut", he was being tossed on the walls, because the lava below him was making harsh waves. Sonic thought he saw the end, but there was no finish line. It was just a huge rocky platform in front of him in a large room. He couldn't stop, and the front of his extreme gear hit the edge, and he went flying onto the platform face down. Then, Sonic realized that he was in the core of the volcano. He could see the sun above the open mouth of the volcano.

"Welcome to my lair, Sonic the Hedgehog!" a dark figure said.

Sonic looked to see who it was. It was Cinerate, but this was the first time they had met.

"Who are you?" Sonic asked.

"My name is Cinerate, Cinerate the Hedgehog. I have been expecting you here, Sonic, you and your friends. In fact, I have them right here."

He pointed to the wall behind them, and the wall turned, showing Amy, Omega, Cream, Cheese, Tails, and Knuckles chained up on the wall.

"They were all behind me," Sonic said. "How did you get them first?"

"As they were heading down the "shortcut," I just grabbed them." Cinerate replied.

"I knew something wasn't right when I came to the shortcut!" Sonic said.

"What do you mean by that?" Cinerate asked.

"Well, shortcut was spelled wrong."

Cinerate turned to his dinosaur, Slasher. "Can't you spell anything right?!" Cinerate asked him.

"Oh come on, go easy on me! I'm a dinosaur; my brain is the size of a peanut for God sakes!" Slasher replied.

"Never mind that." Cinerate said. "It seems like I have all of you… wait a minute!"

Cinerate counted everybody, but realized that he was missing Shadow, Rouge, and Dr. Eggman. "It seems that I'm missing three people. Hmph! No matter. I'm sure they won't be able to get here in time."

"Time for what?" Knuckles asked.

"The time where you will all die! Starting with Sonic. But I do hope that Shadow will be able to get here. It's time for me to repay the favor, after what he did to me."

"You know Shadow?" Sonic asked.

Cinerate chuckled in an evil way. "Let's just say that I share a past with him."

"What do you mean by that?" Amy asked. "I mean it's not like you're his brother right?"

"Actually, he _is_ my brother."

Everyone was shocked. They did not believe that Shadow had a brother.

"Well, I'm one of his brothers."

"One of his brothers?" Tails asked. "You mean he has _another_ brother?"

"That's right, fox boy. His second brother is, well, actually trapped on a planet, or should I say, plunged into a planet." Cinerate said.

"But why should I waste my time talking about my past? I got work to do, and people to kill. And you are number one on my hit list Sonic, so let's get this over with. Oh, and I have been watching you run Sonic. I must admit you are probably the fastest thing I have seen, so let's see you live up to the name "Legend of Speed."

"Huh, alright then. I hope you're prepared for me kicking your butt!" Sonic said.

"Very well. I shall dispose of you first, and then I'll take care of your friends!" Cinerate said.

Then the battle between Sonic and Cinerate began.


	6. A Hedgehog Reborn

A Hedgehog Reborn

A Hedgehog Reborn

Back outside of the volcano, Rouge and Shadow were still walking to the volcano.

"Why can't we run there?" Rouge complained.

"I don't feel like it." Shadow replied.

"Come on! This extreme gear race might be fun, even for you!" Rouge said.

"Fine we'll run there!" Shadow yelled. "Just stop complaining will ya'?"

Both Shadow and Rouge then ran the rest of the way to the volcano. When they got there, they saw the female fox, but she looked worried.

"Excuse me! Are you friends of Sonic the Hedgehog?" She asked them.

Shadow spoke first. "Well, I wouldn't say friends but,"

Rouge elbowed him in the stomach.

"OW!" Shadow yelled.

"Yes we are!" Rouge replied.

"Oh, thank God! You see, Sonic and his other friends raced earlier, but they haven't appeared, and they've been gone for a while. Would you two mind in going in the volcano and looking for them to make sure they're alright?"

"Sure thing." Rouge replied.

"Oh, thank you! I'll get you both the extreme gear for you to choose." The female fox said.

Shadow recovered from the blow to the stomach. "Was that necessary?" He asked weakly.

"Please, anything would've been necessary to stop you from blurting out that we're not really his friends." Rouge replied.

After they both chose their extreme gear, they headed off through the volcano looking for everybody. They were about to give up, when suddenly Shadow spotted the shortcut sign.

"Rouge! Take a look at this!"

Rouge looked at it, and saw that shortcut was spelled wrong.

"I bet that Eggman's behind this!" Shadow said.

"Shadow, he's got an IQ of 300. I highly doubt that he would spell a simple word wrong." Rouge said.

"But I'm sure that Sonic and his friends would go down a shortcut to win a race. We'll just check and see." Shadow said.

"Fine, let's go."

Inside Cinerate's lair, Sonic and Cinerate were still fighting, but it did not look good for Sonic. Cinerate could use Chaos Control, but needed at least one chaos emerald to do so.

Sure enough, he did have one that he stole from Sonic while they were fighting. Also, with the one chaos emerald, Cinerate was using other chaos powers that Sonic did not know about.

Just then, using his ice powers, Cinerate froze Sonic in place, then he used a move called flash shot, where he dashes right through his opponent through a fiery aurora, engulfed in flames at light speed.

Cinerate broke the ice, and Sonic flew into the wall behind him, almost dead.

"Legend of Speed. You don't deserve that name!" Cinerate said.

"I ran faster than the speed of sound, didn't I? Therefore, I am the Legend of Speed." Sonic said very weakly.

"Doesn't matter. Before today is over you'll be dead!"

Cinerate then surrounded Sonic with flames, so Sonic was in a ring of fire. Cinerate put his hand over the ring, and the flames shot at Sonic. Cinerate kept doing this, and was about to kill him, when suddenly Shadow and Rouge came in.

"Hold up!" Shadow yelled.

Cinerate turned around. "_Shadow the Hedgehog." _Cinerate said quietly. "It's been what, fifty years, since I last saw you throw me out the window."

Shadow only responded with a question. "Who are you?"

Cinerate stood there dumbfounded. "You throw me out a window fifty years ago, and yet you _don't_ remember me?"

"Uh, yeah, that's what I'm trying to say." Shadow replied.

"Can you please explain this Sonic?" Cinerate asked him.

Sonic was nearly dead, but he could still answer. "Well, a few years ago Shadow got amnesia, and he couldn't remember anything about his past, so he might not remember you."

"Thanks." Cinerate said. He shot the flames at Sonic again.

"Will you please let him go? He's nearly dead!" Rouge said.

"I know, isn't it lovely?" Cinerate laughed.

Outside the volcano in Eggman's ship, the Chaotix team was still locked up inside.

"_Hey guys, I think I have an idea to get out. Well, a simple idea, that is." _Vector whispered to Charmy and Espio.

_"See that robotic guard over there?"_

Espio and Charmy looked and saw him. They nodded.

_"That guard has the key to unlocking these shackles. I'll see if I can get it."_

_"What do you want us to do?" _Charmy whispered back.

_"Nothing, really. Just watch."_

"Ah, excuse me. You over there. Can you come here please?" Vector said to the robot.

The robot walked over. "What is it that you want?" he asked.

"Can you give me a drink of water please?" Vector asked.

"You just had one ten minutes ago." The robot replied.

"Hey, I'm a crocodile. I'm big on being wet!" he said.

"Fine. Here is your glass of water." The robot handed Vector a glass of water.

Immediately, Vector threw the water at the robot, and the electricity and the water were disprogramming the robot, and the robot fell down, completely dead.

"Well planned." Espio said.

"Yeah, but you better hurry and grab that key! The security alarms are going off!" Charmy yelled worried.

"Don't worry, I'm almost done!" Vector unlocked himself, and then both Espio and Charmy.

Then, all three of them had to deal with the other robots, and all of the security systems. When everything was clear, the team then headed for the door, but it was locked.

"Are you kidding me?!" Vector said in anger.

"The doctor's prepared." Espio said.

"Well, I guess we'll have to find the switch to open this door." Charmy said. "Hey this might be it." Charmy pushed a random button.

"NO, DON'T PUSH ANYTHING!" Vector yelled. However, it was too late. Suddenly, a voice emitted from the speakers after Charmy pushed the button:

**All Systems now turning on. Prepare to launch into space in three, two, one,**

"We're doomed." Vector said.

**zero. Blasting off into space now.**

Eggman's ship started to load up, and in a few seconds, it was blasting off into space faster than the speed of sound. Both Charmy and Vector started screaming, but Espio was not. In fact, he stayed calm. Charmy started pushing random buttons to stop the ship despite Vector's orders. However, the ship stopped going at light speed, and slowed down to a slow speed.

"Whew, that was a close one, but man, I am good!" Charmy said pleased.

"Good?! You got lucky you crazy nut job!" Vector yelled.

"Um, guys, where are we?" Espio asked.

All three of them looked out the window. They saw a planet that was nothing they had ever seen.

"Whoa! We must be in another solar system or something!" Vector said amazed.

"Yeah, I've never seen this planet before!" Charmy said excited. "Let's go check it out!"

"Oh no you don't! We're not leaving this ship in the hands of you again! We gotta' find a way back to Earth!" Vector said.

"Oh, fine." Charmy said disappointed.

Suddenly, the ship started heading towards the planet fast.

"Charmy, I told you we're not visiting!!"

"It's not me I swear! We're being pulled towards the planet!" Charmy said.

"Really? By what!" Vector asked.

"Wait! This computer's sensing a high gravitational pull here on this planet." Espio said.

"So, we're being pulled towards the planet by gravity?" Vector asked. "Can we escape it?"

"Afraid not. This ship doesn't have enough power, after **somebody** decided to blast through space!"

Both Espio and Vector were looking at Charmy. Charmy blushed in embarrassment.

"Then, what are our options?" Vector asked.

"Well, our only option is to hang on tight, and expect a rough landing."

Everyone was hanging on tight as the ship was coming down fast towards the planet. The speakers went on again:

**WARNING! WARNING! SHIP WILL MAKE CONTACT WITH PLANET IN FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE, ZERO.**

As soon as it said zero, the ship was plunging into the planet with everyone holding on as tight as they could, but they were still being tossed around. The ship then came to a stop, and everything went black.

"Ugh…"

Espio was waking up. He had seen that Vector and Charmy were still unconscious. He was shaking them, trying to wake them up. Finally, they both woke up.

"Did we make it?" Charmy asked.

"Looks like we did." Vector replied.

"That's true, but now the question is how do we get out of this planet?" Espio said. "The ship is out of power, and we have no idea where we are."

"We have to find help. Charmy, go outside and see if we can get help." Vector said.

"Are you crazy? There are no aliens in space!" Charmy said. "Besides, we can't breathe in space."

"The doctor has these space suits that I just found." Espio said. "Put this on, and you'll be able to breathe in space."

"Oh, fine."

Charmy put on the suit, and flew out of the ship, which was badly damaged. As he was flying through the deep crater that the ship made, he stopped to find a hedgehog on the wall of the crater. Charmy almost screamed, but stayed calm, and then he grabbed the hedgehog, and flew back to the ship.

"Guys! Guys! You will not believe what I just found!"

"What is it?" they both replied.

"I found this hedgehog as I was flying out! I think he might be hurt!"

"Ugh…"

He was waking up, and was confused on where he was.

"Where am I?" he asked weakly.

"Um… long story." Vector replied. "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Static the Hedgehog!"

"Never heard of him." Charmy said.

"Charmy! Don't be so rude!" Vector yelled.

"Ah, it's OK. You guys wouldn't know me."

Static looked around. "By the way, do you know a hedgehog by the name of Cinerate?"

The three of them looked confused. "No, we don't." they all answered.

"Just wondering." Static said.

"Hey, can you help us out?" Charmy asked.

"Sure, after you saved me." Static said.

"Well, this ship kind of crashed into this planet, so, is there any way that you can get this ship going again?" Vector asked.

"Hmm… I might, but can you show me to the main control room?" Static asked.

"I think it's over here." Espio replied.

Espio showed Static to a room with millions of wires, and there was a conductor in the middle.

"Yep, this is it alright. I believe I can fix this, but you three might want to stand back." Static warned them.

Static then held out his hands and then he emitted electric bolts from his hands, and shot them at the conductor. Suddenly, the speakers turned on and said:

**All Systems returning to normal. Have a nice day.**

"He did it!" Charmy yelled excited.

"Now, do you know a way back to Earth?" Vector asked.

"Of course I do! I'll get you there as soon as possible!"

"I'm starting to like this guy." Espio said.

"Me too!" Charmy said still excited.


	7. Escape from Paradise

Escape from Paradise

Escape from Paradise

Static looked like he knew the galaxy like the back of his hand, and yet, he pretty much did. He was able to locate the ship back to Earth. Static then set the onboard computer to Paradise Island, and within a flash, the ship then headed straight for the island.

They then passed through the atmosphere and finally landed on the island. Immediately, Static rushed out of the ship like he was late for something. Static did run pretty fast, though.

"Quick! We must hurry to the volcano!" Static yelled to the Chaotix crew.

"Why?" Charmy asked.

"I sense his presence here!" Static replied.

"Who?" Vector asked.

"There'll be time for explanations later! Right now we must hurry!"

The Chaotix crew was confused, but they followed Static anyway.

Meanwhile inside the volcano, Cinerate and Shadow were fighting this time. Sonic was on the sidelines, being all hot, sweaty, and burned from the flames.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow yelled.

Shadow then disappeared, and then reappeared behind Cinerate. However, Cinerate knew that Shadow was behind him, and dodged Shadow's kick. Cinerate followed up with an uppercut with his feet, launching Shadow in the air. Cinerate jumped up to Shadow, and used flash shot, but Shadow used Chaos Control again.

With time being slowed down, Shadow was able to dodge Cinerate's flash shot with ease. Shadow then slammed Cinerate downwards with his fists, and then Shadow went below him and kicked him in the air before he hit the ground. Shadow then charged up a Chaos Spear attack, and shot it at Cinerate at full power. However, Cinerate used an ability called Incinerate, where he engulfed himself fully in flames, and did a super fast, flaming tackle.

With this ability, Cinerate broke right through the Chaos Spear attack, and charged directly at Shadow. He was able to hit Shadow successfully, and plummeted Shadow into the ground at full speed.

Shadow got out of the ground, exhausted, and was breathing very heavily now.

"That wasn't even a challenge!" Cinerate laughed after he taunted Shadow.

"I…am…the…ul…timate…life form." Shadow said very, very exhausted. "I cannot be defeated… by you."

"Please, don't even start with your "ultimate life form" stuff. You know that isn't true. You know that I am the ultimate. I am the only powerful force on this pitiful planet. Nothing can stand in my way, and nothing _will_ stand in my way."

"Really? Don't waste your time saying a long speech about stuff that isn't true." A voice said from behind.

"_I know that voice."_ Cinerate thought.

He turned around to see that Static and the Chaotix crew were in the entrance.

"Well, well, well. Long time, no see Static."

"So this is Static?" Shadow asked.

"Shadow, meet Static, your lame brother. Static, meet Shadow, your even lamer brother.

"Hello, I'm in the room!" Shadow said. "Seriously, do you have any manners?"

"Hmm, no, not that I can think of." Cinerate joked.

"Please, we all know that by now." Static said.

While the three were bickering, Espio was invisible, freeing the others. Cinerate then noticed that, and shot Espio with fire. However, Espio freed everyone, except for Sonic.

"Um, I'm still being burned from flames here, so… does anybody want to help me out of here?" Sonic asked.

"Sorry hedgehog, but your not going anywhere!" Cinerate replied.

"That's what you think!" Static yelled. Right away, Static shot water at the ring of fire surrounding Sonic, and the flames were extinguished. Sonic got up, but he was still very weak.

"I think we still have a battle to finish here!" Cinerate said to Sonic.

"Sonic's mine to handle!" a voice said from above.

Everyone looked up, and saw a huge robot falling down towards them. Right away, they jumped out of the way. This robot was colored black and blue, with a sword in one hand, and on the other were huge claws that could also change into a shield. On top of the head was Eggman.

"Eggman! You again?" Sonic shouted.

"Not him again." Shadow groaned.

"Will that guy ever give up?" Knuckles said.

"What is he up to this time?" Amy asked.

"Now I finally found you Sonic! And it looks like you're burned very badly and weak, which gives me the advantage! HaHaHaHa!" Eggman laughed victorious.

"_Why did __**he**__ have to come in a time like this?"_ Sonic thought.

"This time, there will be no interruptions!" Eggman yelled.

"Not when I'm around!" Cinerate said. He used flash shot immediately on the robot, slicing through it. His powerful ability took down the robot like it was nothing. However, the robot exploded, and started to cause a tremor in the volcano, but then it started to feel like an earthquake.

"This volcano is about to blow up! We must evacuate!!" Eggman yelled.

"Good idea." Cinerate said darkly. Slasher then picked him up, and he was gone.

"NO!! We can't let him escape!!" Sonic yelled.

"Don't worry about him! We got bigger things to worry about, like evacuating for starters!" Static said.

Everyone was going through the shortcut that they came through earlier. When they got to the entrance of the volcano, all the tourists, and tourist guides were already evacuated.

"Well, at least everyone else is safe!" Tails pointed out.

"Yeah, but that attitude won't save us now! We must take Eggman's ship to escape." Charmy said

"What?! My ship? Can't we use something else to escape?" Eggman said surprised.

"It's our only way out!" Shadow said. "Besides, do you have any better ideas?"

Eggman was beat. "Fine, but don't scratch it up!"

The Chaotix crew was worried what Eggman's reaction to what the ship looked like. The ship was working, but it still looked terrible. Everyone arrived at the ship, and Eggman's expression on his face was horrified.

"**AHHHHHHHHHH!"** Eggman yelled out a scream that was heard throughout the entire island. He turned to the Chaotix team. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO IT?!"

Charmy was blushing, embarrassed. "Hehe, funny story. You see…"

He was interrupted by Static. "No time to tell stories! Let's get out of here!"

Everyone immediately got onboard and flew off. Sonic was lying down, but then got up quickly because he forgot someone: Starlet.

"STARLET!" Sonic yelled out through the window. "We forgot about her, we must go back!"

"Sonic, I'm sure she's fine. She most likely evacuated with the other people." Amy said trying to calm Sonic down.

"No, no she wasn't with them. She didn't feel the tremor, she was down at the bar, she couldn't have… couldn't have… ARRGH!" Sonic was now crying, and was banging things around, heartbroken that he lost a friend, and he was blaming himself for it. He knew it in his mind: Starlet was gone.


	8. Hunting the Hedgehog

Hunting the Hedgehog

Hunting the Hedgehog

Sonic was calmed down, but he was not talking because he was blaming himself for Starlet's death. He wouldn't believe anyone else that Starlet was all right. Amy was getting fed up with this, but kept it serious because she knew this meant a lot to Sonic.

"Sonic, are you absolutely sure she's dead?" Amy asked him.

Sonic just nodded.

"Well, I don't think she is. You have to look at the bright side Sonic. Trust me."

Sonic took a piece of paper and a pen and wrote something on the paper. He gave it to Amy. It said: If you can't trust me, why should I trust you?

"Oh." Amy said gloomily. "Well, is there anyone you want to talk this over with?"

Sonic was about to shake his head, but then he thought about that, and nodded.

"Who?" Amy asked him.

Sonic took another piece of paper and wrote down: Shadow.

"Why him?"

Sonic wrote down: Because he went through a time like this with Maria.

"Hmm. Good point." Amy stated. "Well I'll get him in here."

Amy walked out of the room.

"Shadow!" Amy called.

"What do you want?" Shadow said annoyed.

"Please don't be so rude!" Amy scolded him.

"Sorry. But seriously, what do you need?"

"Sonic wants to talk to you." Amy said.

Shadow almost laughed. "Sonic? Talking to me? That's unusual."

"I know, but he wants to talk to you because you went through a time like this with… you know who." Amy tried not to remind Shadow of Maria.

"You can say her name." Shadow replied.

"Maria." Amy finished.

Shadow cringed, but he didn't spaz out like he used to do when he was reminded of Maria.

"What should I talk to him about?" Shadow asked.

"Well just that it's not his fault of Starlet's death, or if she died." Amy said.

Shadow sighed. "Alright fine. But if he still believes Starlet's dead, don't blame me.

"Okay, I won't." Amy replied.

Shadow walked in the room where Sonic was.

"Um… hey." Shadow said to Sonic.

Sonic opened his mouth. "Hey." He replied back.

"So uh, I hear that you're blaming yourself for Starlet's death, or if she's dead."

"Yes… yes that's right. And she is dead, believe me." Sonic paused. "Shadow, what did you do when Maria died? Did you blame yourself?"

"No. I saw that those G.U.N. soldiers killed Maria right in front of me. At least I was certain that Maria was dead, yet, you still think that Starlet is dead, but you didn't see that happen, did you?" Shadow said.

"No, I haven't." Sonic replied quietly.

"Even if she died, there's no reason to blame yourself. There was nothing you could do to prevent it happening."

Sonic knew that Shadow was right. He looked out the window and saw that the entire island was completely covered in lava. "For now, all we know is that, Starlet is alive." Sonic said.

"Glad you realized that." Shadow remarked.

"Let's just go home and find Cinerate." Sonic said.

"Good idea." Shadow said.

"However, I'd like to be alone for a while." Sonic added.

"Your choice." Shadow said.

Shadow walked back in the main room of the ship. He was immediately greeted by Amy.

"So, how's he holding up?" she asked him.

"Well, he's alright now, and he's talking again, but he wants to be alone for a while." Shadow replied.

"Oh thank you Shadow!" Amy yelled. She hugged Shadow.

"Whoa, easy!" Shadow said. "Just calm down."

"Sorry." Amy apologized. "It's just that Sonic makes me worried a lot, and I do want to marry him so, I get a little over excited when he feels better."

"Oh, speaking of, look what I found in the desert." Shadow said. He had Amy's ring in his hand.

Amy gasped. "You found it? But, how?" she asked.

"I just found it laying in the sand after you threw it down there."

"You were following us?"

"Well, yeah, I guess." Shadow said.

"Give that back!" Amy yelled as she was chasing Shadow through the room.

"Oh now you want it back? Well, come and get it!" Shadow taunted her.

"You are one troublemaker Shadow!" Amy yelled.

Meanwhile out in the ocean, two figures were walking across it on a path of ice, and were following the ship.

These two figures were Slasher and Cinerate. The path of ice that they were walking on was because of Cinerate's ice powers. Slasher was looking up for the ship, but because of the icy frost above them, he lost sight of it.

"Great, we lost sight of it!" Slasher complained. "How will we find them now?"

"Relax. It doesn't matter where or how far they go, we know where they are. There's a tracking device on the ship, so we always know where they are."

"But what will we do about Sonic and all his friends? Not to mention Static." Slasher asked.

"That's where reinforcements come in." Cinerate said.

"Reinforcements?" Slasher asked.

"Exactly. Well, at least **one **reinforcement." Cinerate said. "I'm going to hire a hunter to "hunt" down Sonic and his friends, plus us, and that will be enough to take down Sonic."

"You think just one hunter is going to be enough?" Slasher asked.

"If I hire a good one, yes. Also, he'll make sure that Sonic will stay out of my way. That'll give me enough time to plan my controlling of the world scheme."

Cinerate took out a tiny computer chip, and then inserted it into flat square looking thing. He then turned it horizontally, and a hologram popped up from it.

"Now let's see. Hunters, where can I find good hunters?" Cinerate muttered to himself.

He put his finger on the hologram, and ran it down, making the screen scroll down. He was skimming through different hunters, until he came up to one that he liked.

"Hmm, this hunter looks promising." Cinerate said.

After reading the summary about the hunter, he pushed a button on the hologram that said: Hire. After he pushed it, the speakers on the square turned on.

"Greetings." The voice said in a grim and dark way. "What do you need me to hunt?"

It was Cinerate's time to answer. "I'll explain everything to you when we meet."

"Where can I find you?" the hunter asked him.

"I'll be waiting for you on the East Coast. When you get there go into the ally between the houses with the address 740 and 745. Go down the ally, until you reach a fire mark on the left wall. You will need to remember the following numbers: 24637283. I'll be waiting for you inside.

"I understand." The hunter replied.

"Good. Now, goodbye." Cinerate said.

Then, the speakers shut off, and Cinerate put his mini computer away.

"Just you wait Sonic. Soon, you shall be destroyed, and I will rule this world and the universe!! Hahhaaahaahha!" Slasher also laughed in an evil way, and they disappeared in the icy mist, pondering for Sonic defeat and death.


	9. The Battle with Hunter

The Battle with Hunter

The Battle with Hunter

Back on Eggman's ship, the Chaotix crew was explaining to Eggman what happened to his ship, and how they found Static.

"So then Static was able to get us back to Earth, and here we are." Charmy finished.

"You seem familiar Static." Eggman examined Static. "I know I've heard of you before, but I don't quite know when. Oh! Of course! My grandfather said something to me about some earlier creations he made before Shadow. You're one of them, aren't you?"

Static paused. "Yes, I am, but unfortunately, so is Cinerate. Now you understand why Cinerate, Shadow, and I are all brothers."

"Well, since you know so much about him, why not tell us about him, maybe even about you?" Rouge asked.

"I guess so." Static said.

Everyone listened closely. Even Sonic was out of his room and listening.

"As you all know, we were all created by Eggman's grandfather, in this case, Professor Gerald Robotnik. He decided to create me first. I was given the power to control electricity and water. Though the elements didn't match, I didn't mind. Then he decided to create Cinerate, who ended up with the abilities to control fire and ice. Once again, the elements didn't match. Both of us also could us all different abilities and the Chaos powers. However, something happened that made Cinerate evil and created his desire for power and world domination. I don't know what happened, but I was sent in to stop Cinerate from tearing down the Ark."

"He was going to tear down the Ark?!" Amy yelled in astonishment.

"Yeah, isn't that something?" Static continued. "Anyway, despite my efforts, the fight with Cinerate only made the Ark's condition worse. The professor had to do something. He sent us out of the ark to continue our fight in space. Apparently after that, Shadow was created. Both Cinerate and me landed on a planet with a high gravitational pull, and we plunged into the core of the planet, but somehow, Cinerate escaped, and I never saw him again, until the Chaotix crew saved me. So, here I am."

"What a story!" Vector pointed out.

"Say, has anybody seen Cream?" Amy asked.

"Oh, she's trying to help clean Sonic's wounds and burns from that last battle." Rouge said.

"Hold still Sonic! I'm just trying to help!" Cream said in the other room.

"Chao, chao!" Cheese said.

"I appreciate your help Cream and Cheese, but I think I'm all better now. See?"

Sonic jumped off the bed, but he cringed in pain on his legs.

"Come on Sonic. You need help." Cream said.

Sonic sighed. "Alright, fine." Sonic limped towards the bed and sat back down.

"Now hold still, this might sting."

Cream took a bag full of ice and put it on one of his burns. Sonic turned his head the other way, closed his eyes, and grit his teeth, and he groaned quietly in pain.

"Don't worry. You'll feel better tomorrow." Cream promised.

"I hope so. I don't want to have another battle with Cinerate or his dinosaur." Sonic said.

Amy rushed in. "Guys, were almost home!" She announced.

"Finally!" Sonic said.

Everyone looked out the window and saw Cream's house.

"I hope mother won't mind if we park in the backyard!" Cream said.

"Chao, chao!" Cheese said as well.

The ship came to a landing in the backyard. The noise woke up Cream mother, Vanilla.

"Oh! What was that?" Vanilla said surprised.

She came out the back door, and was frightened by the enormous ship. "Ahhhhhh! What's all this?!"

"Hi mother!" Cream yelled.

"Cream? You're back already?"

"Mother, I have so much to tell you!" Cream said excited.

"Yes you do young lady! You have a lot of explaining to do!"

Cream hung her head in shame.

"Yes, that's right. When you're done explaining you're going to…"

She stopped at the sight of Sonic limping and was all bruised up.

"OH DEAR LORD!! WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!"

"That's what I need to tell you mother."

Vanilla forgot what she said to Cream and was now interested at what Cream was going to say. "Oh please do! Tell me all about it! But first, let's get you and your friends inside. It's nearly midnight, and you people must be exhausted. Come in, come!"

Everybody went inside, and Cream explained everything that happened from start to finish. When Cream finished, Static started to speak.

"It's really nice of you to take us in Ms. Vanilla."

"My pleasure. After taking care of Cream and Cheese, it's the least I could do."

She then turned to Sonic. "Alright, let's see what's wrong."

She examined the burns on Sonic. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Those are some nasty burns on you Sonic. My guess that these are third degree burns. But thanks to Cream, all you have to do is rest, and those burns will be gone. Now let's see those bruises."

She examined Sonic again. "Tell me Sonic, does this hurt?"

She put her two fingers on the crease of Sonic's left arm and pushed down.

"OWW!" Sonic yelled. "Yeah, that hurts!"

"Hmm…" Vanilla thought.

"What? What is it?" Amy asked worried.

"I'm afraid Sonic's left arm is broken." Vanilla said.

"Sonic!!" Amy rushed towards him. However, Static stopped her.

"Fortunately, it's not that serious. Sonic's arm is broken just a little bit. I can put him in a cast, and the arm should heal up faster. However, Sonic will have to stay in bed for about 12-15 hours."

"12-15 hours?!" Sonic yelled. "I can't wait that long! I have to at least move around! I can't stand still for that long! I like to move around!"

"Sorry, but you just have to live with it. Besides, you want your arm to get better, right?" Vanilla asked.

Sonic sighed. "Uh, I guess so."

"Now go to bed! It's after midnight!" Vanilla ordered.

"Alright." Sonic limped up the steps to his bedroom.

"The rest of you too! It's very late."

"Okay." They all said. Everyone turned out the lights and went to sleep.

About 5 miles away, a helicopter was flying above the streets, carrying the hunter Cinerate hired. He was wearing a ninja-like suit, but it had inside of it a few gadgets and it was also a thermal and heat resistant suit. Every part of his body was covered except for the top part of his head, which were his eyes and his hair.

He put on night vision goggles, and looked down at the two houses to make sure they were both 740 and 745. When he confirmed this, he jumped out of the helicopter and was falling in between the two houses. He did a few back somersaults, and landed on the TV antennae on the house to the left. Facing left, he did another back somersault towards the other house, and grabbed the TV antennae on that house.

He swung around a few time, then flew forward a little bit, and landed in the ally. He walked through the ally a little bit, paying no attention to the rats at his feet. Finally, he found the fire symbol on the left wall, and said the numbers. Suddenly, the ground started to shake, and he backed away from the wall. The wall flipped over, and there was an open ventilation shaft. He walked through the shaft, and the wall flipped back again. While he was crawling, he fell into a hole in the shaft, however, stayed calm. He landed on his feet, and he was staring at a huge laboratory. In the middle was a gigantic, electrical power generator. Yet, this was colored red.

He turned his head to the right, and saw a huge, platinum TV screen. In front of it was a desk with one chair turned to the TV.

"I see you finally arrived." Cinerate said. He turned around in his chair.

"Hmph! Piece of cake!" the hunter said. "What kind of a challenge was that?"

Cinerate got up from his chair. "I need you to save your energy. This mission you are about to take is not an easy one, so I need all the strength from you I can get."

"My kind of challenge." The hunter said ready to fight.

"Now, your name is Hunter, is that correct?" Cinerate asked.

"Yes that's correct." Hunter said.

"I need you to hunt down and kill this hedgehog." Cinerate gave him a picture of Sonic. "Destroy him, and any friends with him, but if you see a black hedgehog with him, bring him to me, alive. No questions asked. Now there's no time to waste. Now go!"

And with that, Hunter was off.

The next day, Sonic was forced to stay in bed. To make sure he wouldn't escape, the windows in the room were sealed, and if Sonic made a break towards the door, an electric collar located on his wrist would shock him. It took Sonic a while to get used to this. Finally, after the 12-hour wait, Sonic was finally allowed out of bed, and Cream took off his cast. He felt much better and refreshed and like always, he took off.

Sonic immediately took to the streets of the city and was enjoying it, but while he was running, he was tackled by none other than Hunter. Hunter grabbed Sonic by the throat and threw him at a lamppost. He grabbed sonic again, threw him up in the air, and kicked at him twice, making Sonic fly forward. Hunter caught up to him, and punched Sonic in the ground. People were honking their horns on their cars, and swerving around, causing some car accidents.

Sonic got up from the crater he made, and looked at Hunter. This time, he was not wearing his suit, so his whole body was visible. He was a green hedgehog, and his quill pattern was similar to Sonic's, but his top quill rose up higher, and steeped more downwards. He had scratch marks on his quills, and had a dark, black border around his eyes and muzzle/mouth. He had a weird circle that went around both of his wrists. His shoes were dressed in a weird way.

"Who…who are you?" Sonic asked weakly.

Hunter grabbed Sonic again. "That is none of your business!"

Suddenly, he was kicked in the head behind him. He let go of Sonic, and flew sideways. It was Shadow.

"Shadow? What are you doing here?"

"Amy sent me here to watch you to see if you were alright."

"She still doesn't trust me?" Sonic asked.

Shadow shrugged. "Apparently not."

Before Sonic could say anything again, Hunter came back, furious. He saw Shadow, and remembered what Cinerate told him, but he focused on Sonic first, trying to get him out of the way.

"Alright, are we going to settle this now?" Hunter asked.

"Hm, I don't know who you are, but you don't seem like the kind type. Plus you annoy me, so let's get this over with." Shadow said.

"Alright Shadow, let's do this!" Sonic said excited.

"_Hmm. So his name is Shadow huh? Gotta' remember that."_ Hunter thought.

They both ran at Hunter, who flipped them over, but was quickly taken down by Shadow, followed up with a combo with Sonic. Hunter got up quickly, and dodged the direct kick by Sonic by flipping backwards, but Shadow followed behind, and punched him towards Sonic, but Hunter balanced on Sonic, and flipped him backwards at Shadow.Both Sonic and Shadow flew backwards.

"Taste this!" Hunter yelled.

Hunter pointed his fists at Sonic and Shadow. The circles around his wrists started glowing green. Suddenly, green sonic waves shot at Sonic and Shadow. Both Sonic and Shadow covered their ears, stunned at the loud, sonic noises.

"AHH! That's loud!!" Sonic yelled.

"My ears!!" Shadow yelled.

Hunter came dashing towards them and punched them both backwards. However, Sonic and Shadow were back on their feet, and more furious than ever.

"Yo Shadow! How about us showing this creep some teamwork?" Sonic said.

"And work together with you? No thanks."

"Come on. It's probably the only way to beat him!" Sonic replied.

"Fine." Shadow finally agreed.

"Alright, here's how it's going to work." Sonic started whispering in Shadow's ear his plan. "Got it?" Sonic asked.

"Got it." Shadow said.

They both ran at Hunter. Sonic went to the left, while Shadow went to the right. Hunter was almost laughing.

"This is going to be too easy!" he said. He was about to shoot the sonic sound at them again, however, Sonic came up to his left arm and spun around it, twisting it. Shadow then came up and punched him really hard, knocking him backwards. They then ran to catch up with Hunter.

"I'm impressed Sonic. You probably are the fastest thing alive. The boss was right." Hunter said to him.

"The boss? What boss? Who are you working for? Most importantly, how do you know my name is Sonic?" Sonic asked him.

"I told you before that is none of your business!" Hunter yelled.

"Whoa! Look out!" Shadow yelled.

Everyone looked up and saw a truck in front of them. All three of them rammed right into the truck, and they flew forward, landing on top of it. They each got up, and Hunter was holding his left arm due to Sonic twisting it.

"It ends here!" Hunter yelled tired.

Suddenly, something was beeping. It was Hunter's walkie-talkie implanted on the circle around his wrist. A voice emitted from it:

"Hunter! I need you back at the base now!!"

"Wait a minute! I know that voice!" Sonic said.

"Me too!" Shadow said also.

Hunter looked ahead at the street. He shot a sonic wave on the street ahead of the truck, causing a crater.

"Looks like you're going to have a rough landing Sonic and Shadow!" Hunter yelled. Then he disappeared into thin air.

"He got away!" Sonic yelled.

"Sonic! We have bigger things to worry about!" Shadow yelled. "Look!" Shadow pointed at the crater Hunter created. The front left wheel of the truck hit the crater, and it spun sideways in the air, and then landed on the top, right on top of Sonic and Shadow. Unconscious, both Sonic and Shadow were lying on the ground, left for dead by Hunter.


	10. Starlet Returns

Starlet Returns

Starlet Returns

"Are they dead?" one voice asked.

"No, they can't be dead. Their hearts are still beating." The second voice replied.

Sonic and Shadow woke to find that they were back in Cream's house. The two figures were Amy and Tails. Knuckles was there as well.

"Tails? Amy" Sonic asked. "How did you find us?"

"The truck accident was all over the news. Take a look." Tails pointed to the TV. It was on the news, and it was about the accident.

"**This is the 3:00 news live reporting for a special news report. On Main Street a truck accident just happened today. We go now live to John who is at the scene at the accident. John?"**

"**Alright thanks Jamie, a truck accident happened today. We have security cameras that caught the accident. As you can see, three mysterious figures were on the truck, and it looks like they were battling. However, the green figure shot something on the street, causing a crater. He somehow disappeared, and then the truck hit the crater, causing it to spin in the air, landing on top of the other two figures. Ouch!"**

The news report ended.

"We saw you guys on top, and when the truck landed on you, we came as fast as we could and picked you guys up." Amy said.

"The police are already investigating, and they are trying to find that green dude. They're saying he'sthe cause of the accident, and they're going to arrest him when they find him." Knuckles said.

"Yeah, but something puzzles me." Sonic said.

"What's that Sonic?" Tails asked.

"That green hedgehog, it sounded like he was working for somebody. But the question is who?"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Isn't it obvious?!" Shadow yelled.

"What?" Sonic said confused.

"Who do you think it is? Who has been trying to kill us in the first place?"

"Eggman?" Sonic said still confused.

Shadow was so furious at Sonic's stupidity that he was about to punch Sonic, but he was too weak himself. "NO YOU IDIOT!! I mean before on the island!" Shadow yelled

"Cinerate." Sonic finally answered.

"Obviously." Shadow muttered to himself.

"But why would he hire someone else to kill you guys? I'm sure he's not busy to go off and kill you guys himself." Knuckles said.

"Unless…" Tails began.

"Unless what Tails?" Amy asked.

"Unless he's working on something that is powerful enough to destroy this entire planet!" Tails said.

"Hmm. Makes sense." Shadow agreed.

"We have to find him and stop him!" Sonic yelled.

"Yeah, but not today. After what happened to you two, you both have serious injuries. You guys need to stay in bed." Amy said.

"Again?!" Sonic complained.

"Oh suck it up!" Shadow said. "Besides, you'll be spending the day with me!" Shadow said sarcastically. He was trying to annoy Sonic. He found it funny when he did.

"Sure, that'll be pleasant." Sonic said sarcastically.

Back at Cinerate's base, Hunter came in, still holding his left arm.

"A bit of an injury you got there." Cinerate said. "Did Sonic get to ya'?"

"Sonic **and **Shadow." Hunter said.

"Shadow was there as well? Well, I'm not surprised. I figured he'd be there."

"Why do you suppose so?" Hunter asked.

"I'm pretty sure he knew that you were working for me. And believe me, he's not that dumb as you think. He's actually quite intelligent." Cinerate remarked.

"Ah, I see." Hunter said. "So, why did you send me here?" Hunter asked.

"I made a mistake." Cinerate replied.

"On what?" Hunter asked.

"Well, do you remember when I said I wanted you to kill Sonic and his friends, but bring Shadow to me?"

"Yeah, I remember that." Hunter said.

"Well, there's been a change of plans. It's not Shadow I want. It's Sonic." Cinerate said darkly.

"Why do you want him?" Hunter asked.

"Because Sonic's the one everyone mainly cares about. I'm planning to hold him hostage soon."

"What for?" Hunter asked again.

"When it happens, you'll find out." Cinerate said. "In the meantime, I want you to hunt down Sonic and bring him to me."

"Sure thing. Yet, I can't help but wonder what that giant generator thing is." Hunter said.

Cinerate looked over at the generator. "I suppose you're wondering what it does." He said. "Well, I guess it might not be a bad time to tell you about my plan."

"Plan?" Hunter wondered.

Cinerate began talking. "50 years ago, an ultimate weapon was created in the Space Colony Ark. The weapon was named the Eclipse Cannon, a cannon so strong; it was strong enough to destroy a single star, even an entire planet, if it had enough energy. It had a generator located in the central control room that gathered the energy from the seven Chaos Emeralds. If all seven were gathered, the cannon would have the energy to destroy an entire planet. I copied the one out in space and made a generator just like the original, however, the weapon is different."

"How different?" Hunter asked.

Cinerate continued. "The same thing happens here. We need to gather the seven Chaos Emeralds to have enough energy to destroy this planet. As for the weapon being different, this does not shoot out a laser like the original cannon does. Instead, I planned a way so that we will be able to destroy every planet at once!"

"At once?" Hunter seemed confused.

"Yes. When the seven Chaos Emeralds are collected, the weapon will shoot out electromagnetic waves underground. The waves will continue to travel downwards until they reach the core of this planet. The pressure and force will be so strong that it will be strong enough to shatter the core, therefore crumbling this planet, however, this planet will explode. After the planet explodes, it will shoot out the waves around it, destroying any planet nearby. The waves will be strong to shatter the crust of any planet, and the waves continue to travel through space, destroying stars, planets, galaxies, even the sun, and the cycle continues!"

Hunter was stunned. "Wow. Just…wow. One question though. Where will we be?"

"Don't worry about that. The Ark has high defenses that will be able to repel the waves. We'll be up in the Ark." Cinerate replied.

Meanwhile inside, a dark figure was hiding behind some junk, listening to Cinerate's plan. The figure walked quietly over to the computer and inserted a scan disk inside. It was copying the

layout of the generator. However, Cinerate heard the person there.

"Who's there?" He yelled. Cinerate knew who it was when he saw it. "You!" he yelled.

The mysterious figure quickly popped the disk out of the computer and ran off.

"You're not getting away from me that easily!" Cinerate yelled. The figure ran towards the exit, but Cinerate froze the exit, allowing no escape.

"Hand over that disk immediately, if you value your pitiful life!" Cinerate said.

The figure shook its head in disagreement.

"Fine, you leave me no choice. Hunter! Slasher! Get out here now!" Immediately, Hunter and Slasher dashed in the room.

"Both of you, destroy her!"

"Her? It's a girl?" Slasher asked.

"Yes it's a girl, just destroy her and give me that disk!" Cinerate yelled.

"With pleasure." Hunter said.

Both of them dashed right at her, but she threw down a smoke pellet, blinding the three. Then she rushed over at the frozen exit, and stuck a bomb on it. Within a few seconds, the bomb went off, blowing up the ice. She started climbing up, but Cinerate, Hunter, and Slasher were not blinded anymore.

"She's trying to escape! Follow her Hunter!" Cinerate ordered.

Hunter took action and did what he was ordered to do. Having his suit on, he also had an ace bandage around his left arm. This time he covered his hair. He followed the mysterious female to Cream's house. Hunter had no idea that Sonic was here as well.

The female jumped through the front window, while Hunter jumped through the basement window to catch up to her. However, Sonic was relaxing in the basement, when he saw Hunter, but didn't know it was him.

"Huh? What the?" Sonic stuttered.

"You again Sonic!"

"Again?" Sonic said confused.

Hunter sprang at Sonic and punched him before Sonic could get up. Sonic recovered quickly and started spinning, ready to do a spin dash. He spun at Hunter at blinding speeds, knocking him backwards as well.

Hunter also did a spin dash, but Sonic dodged it, however, Hunter followed through and made a clean hit on Sonic. When Sonic hit Hunter again, Hunter fell back on the ground, landing on his left arm.

"OWW!" Hunter yelled. Sonic looked and remembered that Sonic injured Hunter's left arm during the battle earlier.

"Is that you?" Sonic asked him. He pulled off Hunter's mask. "It is you! WHO are you?"

"Fine! If you're that desperate to know, then I'll tell you!" Hunter yelled. "My name is Hunter the Hedgehog. I've been assigned to kill you Sonic!"

"Leave him alone!" a person said. It came from the top of the basement stairs. It was the female. Holding a tazer in her hand, she shot it at Hunter, and the tazer shocked him badly, and he fell to the floor.

Sonic could see her clearly. She had blue eyes, long, golden hair on the back of her head, and her front hair had a pattern like Amy's. She had blue, bellbottom pants, a blue, silky long- sleeve shirt, and purple shoes. Right away from the color of her eyes, Sonic knew who it was: Starlet.

"St…Starlet? Is that really you?" Sonic stuttered.

"Sonic!" Starlet yelled.

"I thought you died!" Sonic yelled.

"And I thought you died!" Starlet replied.

Hunter got back up. "This isn't over Sonic!" Hunter jumped out the window and escaped.

"Argh! He got away!" Sonic said.

"Oh well. At least you're alright Sonic." Starlet said.

"Yeah, you too, Starlet." Sonic replied.

"Sonic," Starlet began.

"What? What is it?" Sonic asked.

"There's something I need to tell you."

"Sonic! Are you alright down there?" It was Amy.

"Yeah! I'm fine!" Sonic shouted back.

"Come upstairs and I'll tell you." Starlet said. They both walked up the stairs, smiling, and holding each other's hands.


	11. A New Adventure

A New Adventure

A New Adventure

"Sonic, are you sure you're alright?" Amy asked again.

"For the last time Amy I'm fine!" Sonic replied in an annoyed way. "Hunter didn't do that much damage to me. He probably would have if Starlet hadn't come. Thanks again for the help."

"No problem." Starlet said bashfully.

"I still can't believe that you escaped from that island!" Static remarked.

"Well, I have my ways!" Starlet said still bashful.

"So, what was that thing you had to tell me?" Sonic asked her.

She paused. "Sonic, do you remember that first day when we met and I told you about how I got to be Tails's bartender?"

"Yeah, I remember that." Sonic said.

"Well… that entire story was a complete lie. I was never working at a bar down in Chicago. In fact, my name isn't even Starlet."

"WHAT?" Sonic yelled in a confusing way. "Then what is your story? Better yet, what is your name?"

Starlet sighed. "My name is Crystal. Well, my codename is."

"Codename? What do you mean by that?" Knuckles asked.

"I work as a government agent for G.U.N. They were catching on the radar some weird type of energy coming from Paradise Island. As a result, I was sent there, disguised as Starlet down at the bar, and was checking the island out for that strange energy. They call me Agent Crystal."

"So all that was a lie huh?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. I hope you're not disappointed."

Sonic sighed. "Who cares. I don't care if you lied to me about your identity or your name. The only thing I care about is that your alright."

"Oh, thank you Sonic!" Crystal said.

"And I really don't like the name Crystal for you. I'll just still call you Starlet." Sonic said.

Starlet hugged Sonic to show her appreciation.

Amy sighed. _"He doesn't act like that when I'm in trouble." _She thought to herself.

Starlet stopped hugging Sonic. "Okay, let's get down to business."

Sonic shrugged. "What business?"

"I was able to find Cinerate's hiding place." She said. "In the meantime, I also found out about his plan to destroy Earth."

"Cinerate survived and is plotting a new plan?" Shadow said surprised. "What's his plan?"

"Listen to this recording that I recorded while I was in there." Starlet said.

She took out a small recording box and everyone was closing in to hear about it. It said exactly what Cinerate said earlier:

"50 years ago, an ultimate weapon was created in the Space Colony Ark. The weapon was named the Eclipse Cannon, a cannon so strong; it was strong enough to destroy a single star, even an entire planet, if it had enough energy. It had a generator located in the central control room that gathered the energy from the seven Chaos Emeralds. If all seven were gathered, the cannon would have the energy to destroy an entire planet. I copied the one out in space and made a generator just like the original, however, the weapon is different."

"How different?" Hunter asked.

Cinerate continued. "The same thing happens here. We need to gather the seven Chaos Emeralds to have enough energy to destroy this planet. As for the weapon being different, this does not shoot out a laser like the original cannon does. Instead, I planned a way so that we will be able to destroy every planet at once!"

"At once?" Hunter seemed confused.

"Yes. When the seven Chaos Emeralds are collected, the weapon will shoot out electromagnetic waves underground. The waves will continue to travel downwards until they reach the core of this planet. The pressure and force will be so strong that it will be strong enough to shatter the core, therefore crumbling this planet, however, this planet will explode. After the planet explodes, it will shoot out the waves around it, destroying any planet nearby. The waves will be strong to shatter the crust of any planet, and the waves will continue to travel through space, destroying stars, planets, galaxies, even the sun, and the cycle continues!"

Hunter was stunned. "Wow. Just…wow. One question though. Where will we be?"

"Don't worry about that. The Ark has high defenses that will be able to repel the waves. We'll be up in the Ark." Cinerate replied.

The sound recorder clicked off.

"That's his plan? Wow. He must've planned this very carefully and thought it through pretty well." Tails remarked.

"Yeah, but why does he want to do this underground?" Espio asked.

"I might have an answer to that." Eggman said.

"You do?" Charmy said confused.

"Yes, of course I do. I figure that Cinerate planned to do this because if he does this underground, we would have no chance of stopping those waves he talked about. Also, like he said, this way it will be able to destroy other planets at once in the process, and the waves will travel through space, destroying other stuff." Eggman finished.

"Hmm. Makes sense." Knuckles said.

Starlet put back the recorder back in her pocket. "Tails, would you mind turning on your laptop computer?" She asked him.

"No, I don't mind." Tails said.

"Thanks, I need to use it." Starlet said.

Tails went in the other room and grabbed his laptop. He turned it on, and Starlet inserted the disk drive that Cinerate wanted earlier.

"What's that?" Sonic asked.

"It's the layout of the generator that Cinerate talked about earlier." Starlet replied.

A hologram appeared in front of them, and it was the generator.

"What do you plan to do with it?" Vector asked.

"That's where I need Tails." Starlet said.

"Me?" Tails asked in astonishment.

"Yes, you. What I'm planning to do is make another one of these generators, except what it will do is it will shoot out stronger waves that will be able to crush the other waves that Cinerate plans on releasing. Tails, I need you to build this, since you're the smartest of us all."

"That's fine and all, but it could take me weeks, even months to build this thing." Tails said.

"How so? It took Cinerate a day to build it, how could it take you forever?" Rouge asked.

"I don't mean building it. Just finding the parts for it will be tough to find" Tails said.

Then, everyone turned to Eggman.

"Why is everyone looking at me?" he asked.

"Eggman, if you have parts to build robots and gigantic ships, I'm sure you'll have the parts Tails needs." Sonic said.

"Are you crazy?! I don't have the parts!" Eggman yelled.

"Just let us check to see if you do have them." Static said.

"Fine." Eggman agreed.

All of them went out back in Eggman's ship to check, and sure enough, the parts were there.

"Great!" Tails exclaimed. "Now I can get to work on this generator!"

"Alright! Let's get started then!" Sonic exclaimed as well.

Meanwhile back at Cinerate's base, Hunter came back.

"Yo boss! Have I got something for you!" Hunter shouted out.

"What is it? The disk?"

"No, but it looks valuable, and it's probably something that you wanted. Take a look at this!"

Hunter pulled out a blue Chaos Emerald from his pocket. Cinerate's eyes widened.

"Where did you get that?" Cinerate asked curious.

"I snuck it from Sonic while I was battling him. He didn't even notice." Hunter said. He tossed the emerald to Cinerate. Cinerate was flipping the emerald.

"Hmm. So Sonic had an emerald all along, and now it's mine. This completes my search for one emerald. Only six more to go." Cinerate then threw the emerald at the machine. Instantly, the emerald went into the slot, and it was shining brightly for a moment, and then it stopped.

"Well, it seems like you've done well Hunter. Now, take your suit, get on Slasher, and follow me. We're going to find the other emeralds."

Instantly, Hunter picked up his suit, and got on Slasher. Cinerate then went up the exit following Slasher and Hunter, and then Cinerate used Chaos Control. They all disappeared into thin air.

Back at Cream's house, Tails had just finished the new generator.

"Okay everyone, we're all set!" he shouted.

"Great, now all we need is the seven Chaos Emeralds." Starlet said.

Sonic smiled. "Six, to be precise." he said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, I just so happen to have one on me. It's right…"

Sonic was checking, but couldn't find it. He frowned. "That's strange. I can't find it. I could've sworn… Uh oh."

"What is it Sonic?" Amy asked.

"I think Hunter got the emerald and brought it to Cinerate!! Shoot!!"

"You lost it?!" Knuckles shouted.

_"Butterfingers."_ Shadow thought. He chuckled quietly afterwards.

Starlet paused. "It's no big deal, but we must get the other ones back now! Cinerate could be well on his way to finding them!"

"Gee, you're a little serious!" Rouge said.

"I'm sorry, but we already lost one Chaos Emerald that was in our possession, we can't afford to lose the other ones!"

"Starlet's right. We must go and find them now." Sonic said.

"Here, take these." Tails said. He handed everyone some type of radar that went around their wrists.

"What are these?" Sonic asked.

"It's a strong radar that will be able to track Chaos Emeralds from a long distance. This will make searching for the emeralds a lot easier." Tails replied.

"Wow Tails! You are prepared." Sonic said.

"Aw, thanks!" Tails said bashfully.

"Okay, here's the plan." Starlet said. "I'm sure that Cinerate, Hunter, and Slasher are already gone, and I'm the only one who knows where Cinerate's hideout is, so, you guys will wait outside for me, I'll hurry up and grab the emerald from the hideout, and we'll be on our way."

"Sounds easy." Sonic said. "Alright then, let's go!"

Everyone hurried up in Eggman's newly repaired ship, and Starlet went back to the hideout and grabbed the emerald. She ran back to the ship, and everyone was on their way.

"Here we go!" Sonic said. "Time for a new adventure!"

And indeed, Sonic was right. The search for the emeralds would be a new chapter in this fun adventure.


	12. The Lost Jungle

The Lost Jungle

The Lost Jungle

"Here we are!" Tails exclaimed. "I'm picking up the Chaos Emerald inside this jungle."

The ship made a landing, and Sonic, Static, and Shadow came out. Inside, Amy was persistent of coming along.

"Oh please! Can I come?" Amy complained.

"Sorry Amy, but we're leaving this mission in the hands of the pros." Tails said.

"I can take care of myself!" Amy said.

"It's not a matter if you can take care of yourself or not Amy. It's just that this is too dangerous, and it might be better off if you didn't go. It's just for your safety." Tails responded.

"I guess so but…"

She was interrupted by Sonic. "Well, you heard the fox. Oh well, better luck next time, so bye-bye!"

"Wait!" She yelled. But Sonic already shoved her back in.

"The fox?" Tails asked him.

"Couldn't think of anything else to say." Sonic replied.

Shadow put his hand over his face and shook his head. "How embarrassing." He muttered.

"Seriously, was that necessary?" Static asked Sonic. "You could've been a little bit nicer."

"Could've, would've, should've. It was the only way to get her out of my way." Sonic said. And just like that, he was off in the jungle. Both Static and Shadow looked at each other confused.

"Is he usually like this?" Static asked Shadow.

"Not really." Shadow replied.

"C'mon guys!" Sonic shouted.

Both Static and Shadow shrugged and ran into the jungle. The three ran past mountains and mountains of trees, ran a couple of loops, swung on vines to get across rivers, until they came to a three way fork in the road.

"Now which way?" Sonic asked.

"Let's just split up. This way we'll cover more ground." Static remarked. "One of these ways has to be where the Chaos Emerald is located."

"That's the best idea I've heard all day." Shadow said. Immediately, he took the right path.

"I might as well take the center path." Sonic said.

"And that leaves me with the left path." Static said.

Suddenly, Sonic's emerald radar started beeping. Sonic checked it out, and it was Tails.

"Tails, is that you?" he asked.

"Hey Sonic! I forgot to tell you that the radar that I gave you has a built in walkie-talkie. I have to tell you something important."

"What is it Tails?"

"Well, it seems like that this forest is so thick that it blocks off any signals, so that means that your radar might not work properly."

Sonic took a look at his radar. The radar showed that the emerald was in all different directions.

"Boy I'll say! This thing is doing weird things!" Sonic said.

"I'm sorry Sonic, but I'm losing your signal. It's because of this thick forest! I'll see if I call you back soon. Good luck!"

Then, Sonic's walkie-talkie shut off.

"Well then, it seems like we got a bit of searching to do. I'll meet up with you later Sonic." Static said. Then, he ran off.

As Sonic was running through the forest, he encountered many enemies along the way. He encountered robots, cougars, wolves, and crocodiles, even grizzly bears. While he was running though, he suddenly felt the ground shaking, like an earthquake. He looked back to see what it was, and instead of an earthquake, there was a stampede of elephants and wildebeests. Sonic ran for his life as the animals gained on him. Suddenly, he tripped, stumbling down the hill and then he landed in a lion's den. One of the lions woke up, furious that Sonic woke him up. The lion roared, waking up the other lions. They started closing in on Sonic, but Sonic ran out of the den as fast as he could.

He kept on running, until he stopped at a cliff. The lions came and cornered Sonic. Sonic looked over the cliff, and saw a fast rapid river.

"What to do, what to do, what to do?" Sonic said to himself afraid. "If I stay here I get eaten alive! If I jump I'll drown! There's no other option!"

Suddenly, one of the lions sprang at him and bit his left leg. Sonic yelled in pain, but was able to shake the lion off quickly by hitting it. However, this only made the lion more furious. They were closing in on him. Sonic closed his eyes, ready to be eaten. Suddenly, Sonic heard something crack. The lions stopped to see what it was. The cliff started cracking in half between Sonic and the lions. The lions backed away from it. Sonic fell over the edge on that large piece of rock. He fell into the river on the rock.

"Whew. I am so lucky!" Sonic said pleased. "Now all I have to do is sit back, relax, and wait for me to get to shore." Sonic laid on the rock, but started hearing a loud sound.

"Wait a minute. That sounds like… uh oh."

Sonic looked ahead. He saw a titanic waterfall ahead. The rock started going faster, heading towards the waterfall. The rock was at the edge of it, and just as it was going down, Sonic started screaming. He looked at the bottom and saw sharp rocks. However, Sonic looked ahead. He saw a vine hanging from a tree nearby.

_"If I'm going to jump at that and grab it, I gotta' make it good. I only have one shot at this and if I fail, I'm going to die!" _Sonic thought to himself. He put his hands down and his feet, ready to jump. He jumped from the rock towards the vine and closed his eyes. However, he made it. He swung from the vine onto the path and started running again. He stopped at a dead end.

"Shoot! Wrong way." He said. He turned back around to try to find the waterfall, but couldn't find it.

"Jeez! They don't call this place the lost jungle for nothing!" He went straight back to the dead end to see if there was a hidden path. As he was pacing on what to do, he heard someone talking.

"Hmhm. Two down, five to go." The voice said. Sonic looked behind two tall bushes. Sonic gasped. It was Cinerate with a green Chaos Emerald. He was standing in an open area with trees surrounding the area on a huge circle platform. A pillar was standing in the middle with the Chaos Emerald on it. Behind the pillar was a crumbled temple.

"Hey, Cinerate!" Sonic yelled. "I'd let go of that emerald if you know what's good for you!"

"Haha. Sonic, you're just in time. You'll be the first meal that the beast has had in a long time." Cinerate said grimly.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"Let me show an example by giving you this Chaos Emerald." Cinerate took the emerald from the pillar and threw it at Sonic. Sonic caught it, almost laughing.

"That's all you got? Thanks to you, I've got an emerald. That wasn't even a challenge! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm outta' here!" Sonic said.

Suddenly, as Sonic ran towards the way he came in, huge thorn plants came up from the ground and blocked it. Sonic yelped, and headed towards another exit. It was blocked off too. In fact, thorn plants blocked off every possible exit.

"What's going on here?" Sonic yelled.

"How foolish of you Sonic. Did you actually think that I would give you a Chaos Emerald on purpose? Besides, I need its power to destroy the world. Now, about the beast…"

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. The circle platform started glowing. A gigantic paw came up from the ground in front of Sonic. It looked like a lions paw, but part of it was demented. In other words, the other half was all bone. Another paw came up, and the claws burrowed in the ground. Then, a titanic, ferocious, demented lion came up from the ground. His body was normal, except it had a green scar on its chest. His head also was half skeleton and half normal. At first he had no eyes, but then when it faced the emerald, the eyes were glowing white. The beast roared in anger.

"You see Sonic, this beast is the guardian of this jungle, well, pretty much king of the jungle. He sleeps eternally because of the Chaos Emerald. However, if the emerald is stolen, the beast awakens, and then destroys the person who stole it. In this case, you."

Sonic looked down at the emerald. "So, you're planning to frame me in taking the emerald?" he asked Cinerate.

"Yeah, pretty much." Cinerate replied. "Well, I'm off to gather the remaining emeralds. But don't worry. I'll come back to take the emerald after you're dead. Have fun with him!" Cinerate laughed after saying this. Then, he disappeared.

"Great, now what am I supposed to do…"

The lion struck at him and roared. Then, it grabbed the emerald.

"Hey, watch the leg! I already had another lion bite me there!" Sonic yelled.

"How am I supposed to fight this thing with a wounded leg?"

Suddenly, Sonic started glowing green. Then, a flash of light came from Sonic.

"What the? I… I feel…good. My leg doesn't hurt anymore!" Sonic said happily. "Now, what's this things weak point?"

Sonic started attacking the lion at different places to find the weak point, but couldn't find it. Suddenly, he had a thought.

_"I bet that scar on his chest has something to do with the energy he's receiving. If I can just wound that scar maybe all the energy that he has will be gone."_ Sonic thought.

He attacked it with his homing attack, but it didn't seem to do much damage. He attacked it with a spin dash move, but again, it didn't do much. The lion got more furious with every attack from Sonic. Sonic was dodging all of the claw attacks, but then the lion shot out green gas at Sonic. At first it didn't affect him, but he fell to the ground. He started looking green.

"Ugh. I don't feel so good. I feel like vomiting."

The lion then shot multiple thorns plants at Sonic. Since Sonic was paralyzed from the poison, he was an easy target. Now Sonic was in true pain.

"This might be it… I…think…I'm…"

Suddenly, Sonic was glowing green again. There was a flash of light again. He then transformed into a giant thorn vine. He automatically sprang at the scar. It pierced it badly, making an opening for Sonic. Sonic then did a spin dash at the scar at full speed. The lion roared in pain as it fell to the ground. Its eyes disappeared, and its body fell apart, and then it sank into the ground. Sonic had a look of confusion on his face.

"What the heck was that?! I feel much better and then I turn into a torn plant? And what was that glow that I had?"

He looked up and saw the Chaos Emerald float down on the pillar. He quickly grabbed it, and headed off to the exit. The thorns surrounding it were gone.

"Now I just need to find a way back."

He was pacing at a fast speed, trying to figure out what to do. Then, he had an idea.

"Wait a minute. If I have one Chaos Emerald I'll be able to use Chaos Control. Let's try it out."

Sonic held the emerald above him.

"Chaos Control!" he yelled. He then disappeared.

Back at the ship, everyone was getting worried where Sonic was. Suddenly, a green flash appeared and Sonic appeared after it.

"Oh Sonic we were so worried!" Starlet yelled relieved. "Did you find the emerald?"

Sonic smiled. "Got it right here! No sweat!" However, Sonic was being sarcastic.

"Good. We now have two emeralds. Let's find that third emerald before Cinerate does."

Everyone piled back into the ship, confident that they will succeed in finding the third emerald.


	13. The Stormy Ocean

The Stormy Ocean

The Stormy Ocean

After Sonic got in the ship, he was immediately greeted by Amy. She did not look happy.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, come with me!" She grabbed Sonic by the hand and dragged him into one of the bedrooms in the ship. She closed and locked the door.

"Why did you have to be so mean?" She asked.

"Like what do you mean?" he asked. However, he knew exactly what she meant.

"Don't play dumb with me! You know what I mean!" She was getting angry now.

"Oh, that time where I shoved you back in the ship, yeah, well about that, you see, you were getting annoying so, I wanted you out of my way!" he said very rudely.

Amy was about to cry. "You…you find me…annoying?"

Sonic regretted saying those words he said to Amy. "I…I'm sorry if I said that. I mean…"

Amy interrupted him. "No…no you're right. I…probably am too annoying. I'll stay out of your way." She unlocked the room and then left. Sonic hanged his head and sighed.

After he got out of the room, he had to go to Tails. He had to ask him an important question.

"Tails, I have to ask you something." Sonic asked.

"Go ahead. What is it?" Tails replied.

"Well, while I was fighting the beast in the jungle, I had some weird glow around me, and then all of a sudden, I felt better. Then it happened to me again, but this time, I turned into this thorn plant. Do you have any explanation of this?"

Tails started thinking about this. "Hmmm. Did you already touch the Chaos Emerald before?"

"Yeah I did." Sonic replied.

"Then I think that glow and that transformation had to do with the Chaos Emerald."

"How so? This never happened to me before when I touched a Chaos Emerald."

"That's what I'm confused about Sonic. Something's amiss here. The Chaos Emeralds are reacting strangely, which is unusual for them."

Sonic crossed his arms. "How is this happening?"

"I don't know Sonic. But you might want to stay in this ship when we land."

Sonic was confused. "What?! Why?"

"Well, according to my radar, the next emerald is located somewhere in the ocean. You might want to leave this to Static."

"I think I can do this." Sonic said. "Even if it is the ocean, I can probably do this."

"Um, okay Sonic. If you think you can do this, you can go with Static then." Tails said.

"Good. I'm ready." Sonic said confident.

The ship landed on a platform. Both Sonic and Static got out, and they were facing a gigantic ocean.

Sonic gulped. "Where are we supposed to go from here?"

"Down under." Static said.

"Down…under?" Sonic said worried.

"Yep. Don't worry. You won't drown. There's an underwater cavern that leads to the Chaos Emerald. All you have to do is hold your breath for about 10 seconds. I'll lead you down there."

"Okay, I'm ready." Sonic said. He leaped on Static's back, held his breath in, and Static swam down in the ocean. Sonic opened his eyes and saw an underwater cavern just like Static said. Static swam into the cavern. Inside, Sonic looked up, and he saw light from above. Static swam up, and they were inside a huge tunnel. Sonic was breathing fast, trying to catch his breath.

"Well, here we are." Static said.

"There's water all over the place." Sonic said. "I could drown here!"

"You won't drown. Stop complaining and let's go find that emerald." Static said. The two nodded at each other and ran off. Static was able to walk over water while Sonic ran up the walls being careful not to even touch the water. They were being encountered by a number of sharks, jellyfish, stingrays, and barracudas. Sometimes, Sonic would be riding a dolphin, enjoying himself. Static was also having a good time. Suddenly, they both came up to a waterfall.

_"Not again." _Sonic thought.

Fortunately though, the dolphin that he was riding on was able to jump over the waterfall and make a smooth landing on the water. They were now out of the tunnel and back on the Stormy Ocean.

"I wonder why they call this place Stormy Ocean." Sonic said to Static.

Suddenly, dark clouds started covering the sun. Rain started pouring down and lightning was coming down as well.

"That's why." Static said. All of a sudden, a platform rose beneath Sonic and Static. There was a hole in the middle, and then, a horrendous creature came up from the middle.

"This looks like the shark from Jaws!" Sonic shouted. It was a shark, but much bigger than usual and more ferocious.

"This might be the final enemy of this area!" Sonic yelled to Static.

"That maybe so, but I don't see any Chaos Emerald around here. And the radar says we have to go further to find it." Static replied.

"Well then, I guess we'll have to defeat this shark to move on." Sonic said.

"I guess so." Static said. Before they said anything else, the shark lunged at them with its jaws. They both dodged the attack, and they both attacked the shark, yet, it did nothing.

"How do we stop this thing?" Sonic asked.

Suddenly, the shark swung its tail at both Static and Sonic. They both fell backwards, almost falling off the platform.

"Man that is one strong tail!" Sonic remarked.

"Well you gotta' expect great strength from a shark that big!" Static said.

As Static was climbing back up, he was suddenly struck by lightning.

"Static, are you ok?" Sonic shouted.

"I'm fine, don't worry."

"How did that happen?" Sonic asked.

"The lightning must be reacting to my electricity. I'm probably giving off negative energy while the lightning is giving off positive energy." Static explained.

"Maybe if you climb on that shark, and the lightning strikes you, it might strike the shark as well. That way, I'll be able to attack it while it's weak." Sonic said.

Static thought for a moment. "You know what, that might work. Let's try that out."

Static climbed onto the shark. The shark attacked Sonic instead, and Sonic fell to the floor. Sonic started speeding around the platform. The shark kept full eye contact with Sonic, but was getting dizzy in the process. Static started generating electricity. Lightning came down on Static, and shocked the shark, paralyzing it.

"Now's your chance Sonic!" Static shouted out.

"_Now let's see if I can do that weird ability I was able to do before." _Sonic thought. He took out the green Chaos Emerald and started concentrating.

Sonic started glowing green. Like before, he became a giant thorn plant, and sprang at the shark and pierced him in the nose. The shark was screaming in pain, and then sunk to the bottom of the ocean. The storm cleared, and the sun was shining again. Suddenly, a hidden pathway came up from the ocean.

"Alright, now let's find that emerald!" Sonic said gleefully.

"Wow Sonic! How did you do that?" Static asked him amazed.

"Long story, now let's go!" Sonic replied. He dashed off on the path with Static behind him. Sonic was also amazed that he was still able to do that. In the meantime, he was feeling better as well.

They both continued on the path until they came to a beautiful area with a waterfall in the back. Rocky walls filled with coral surrounded the area, and there was a pool in the middle. Floating above the pool was a turquoise Chaos Emerald.

"There's the Chaos Emerald!" Sonic shouted out. He touched the emerald. He felt a weird sensation in his body.

"But it's not yours." A voice said.

"Who said that?" Static asked.

They both looked at the waterfall. A figure came out of it. It was Cinerate.

"You again?" Sonic asked. "I'm surprised to see you by water since you do have fire powers."

"Please, I'm not a baby like you are." Cinerate said. "I thought that you had perished back at the lost jungle. But I wasn't surprised. When I came back for the emerald it was gone. That meant you survived. But you won't survive here."

"How will you be so sure?" Static asked him.

"Because I know that Sonic can't swim. And without Sonic by your side Static, you're as well as dead."

"That's what you think!" Sonic shouted.

"No Sonic you're wrong. That's what I know. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to find that other emerald. Have fun with this monster. Oh, and I will come back to take the emerald from your charred remains."

Cinerate disappeared, and the sky grew dark again. The scenic area crumbled, and waves started growing strong. A shadowy figure was under the water, and suddenly, it came up from the water. This monster looked like the Loch Ness Monster, and it had gigantic, sharp teeth, and it had four legs, each with black claws on it. It had a fin-like tail, and a turquoise scar on its tail.

"This does not look good." Static said.

"Relax. I'll just use my new special ability." Sonic said. "Alright let's try to focus here."

Sonic was glowing green, and he turned into a thorn plant again. He lunged at the monster; however, the monster dove under the water. But this did not stop Sonic. He followed it down under, but he couldn't see it. Suddenly, the monster struck Sonic and bit off part of the thorn plant, severely hurting Sonic. Sonic quickly came up to the surface and turned back to normal. He had a bad scar on his forehead.

"Sonic! Are you alright?" Static asked him.

Sonic got up, started glowing, and was healed of the scar. "I'm fine." He replied. "But that things tough! He bit off part of the thorns. We're going to need a new plan."

"Sonic, look! Its getting away!" Static said. "But how will you chase it down? There's no platform for you to follow it!"

Suddenly, Sonic started glowing turquoise instead of green. Sonic's eyes turned turquoise, and some parts of his fur turned turquoise. He was giving off a turquoise aura around him.

"Sonic, what's going on?" Static asked him.

"I'm not sure." Sonic replied. "But there's only one way to find out!" Sonic jumped in the water. When he hit the bottom, he realized that he could breathe even though he was in the water.

"I…I can breathe! Woo Hoo!"

"Alright, but we have to chase down that monster!" Static reminded him.

"No problem!" Sonic dashed underwater and caught up with the monster. The monster hid in the darkness. Sonic did not know where he was. Suddenly, his eyesight turned green. He now had night vision. Because of that, Sonic was able to see the monster clearly and dodged the attack. Sonic then climbed onto the head and dashed down the back and attacked the tail. The monster screamed in pain, and Static attacked the tail as well with his electricity. The monster returned to the surface, and was about to finish off Sonic and Static with one final blow with its tail. It struck at Sonic, but Sonic caught it, and attacked it with one final strike. The monster yelled in horrible pain, and sunk to the bottom. The storm cleared up, and the scenic island returned to normal, and so did Sonic.

"Sonic, that was incredible!" Static said.

"Thanks, now let's grab the emerald and get outta' here!" Sonic said.

Static nodded, and Sonic ran up to the emerald that floated down and grabbed it.

"Chaos Control!" he yelled. Both him and Static disappeared.

They reappeared back at the ship, where Tails was waiting for them.

"I see you got the emerald. Great job guys!" Tails said.

"Thanks Tails! Now, are we ready?" Sonic asked.

"We're all ready Sonic!" Sonic and Static got in the ship, and they all were on their way to finding the fourth emerald.


	14. The Machine Empire

The Machine Empire

The Machine Empire

While Sonic was inside the ship, he noticed that Amy was keeping a distance from him. He walked over to her, but she turned her head.

"Hey Amy." He said to her.

She didn't answer.

"Well, is there a reason why you're staying away from me?"

She still kept her head turned away, but she answered the question. "I'm staying out of your way, or being less annoying as you might say." She said. She had a tear in her eye.

"Amy, you do realize I didn't mean to say that right?"

"You sounded serious to me." She answered.

"Well, even if you are trying to be less annoying, it's not working. You're bugging me right now because you're completely ignoring me."

Amy got up from her chair. "Well then, fair enough. If it'll make you happy I'll stay away from you for good." She said sadly. She was tearing up.

Sonic tried to see what was going on. "Amy, are you crying?"

"No." she lied. "Goodbye…Sonic." She left.

"Sonic, we're here!" Tails announced.

"Huh, girls. Can't live with them, can't live without them." Sonic muttered to himself.

As Sonic got out, he was looking at a humongous empire made out of machine parts.

"This looks welcoming." Sonic joked.

"Let's just get this over with." Shadow said impatiently.

Sonic and Shadow dashed into the empire. Shadow and Sonic were having a conversation while they were running.

"So Sonic, I hear you're having girl trouble." Shadow said.

"Shut up, I am not!" Sonic said.

"I can tell you are! Admit it!" Shadow said trying to get Sonic to say that he was having problems with Amy.

"Fine, maybe I am! There! Are you happy now?" Sonic said.

"Oh yes I am!" Shadow said trying to annoy Sonic. Sonic knew what he was planning. "If you're trying to annoy me, it won't work!"

"Whatever. What's the problem?" Shadow asked.

"Well she said that she's staying away from me because she's trying to be less annoying after I told her she was."

"You told her? Sonic, let me tell you something. When talking to a girl, you NEVER, EVER, tell anything bad about them."

"How would you know? You never went out with a girl." Sonic said.

"Well, one time, I said something bad about Rouge while I was with her, and the next thing I know, her foot was in my face."

"Oh, well, whatever. Let's drop this conversation. We're just about to enter the empire." Sonic said.

"Sure." Shadow agreed. They entered the empire, with nearly robots all over the place.

They went down many hallways, encountering many enemies along the way. The place looked very machine-like, with machines that was generating the electricity around the place and keeping the empire from crumbling. They were able to grind on many rails, and also use some technological stuff like Extreme Gear that ran on electricity rather than air, karts that ran along rails, and they even found some lasers that helped them defeat enemies faster.

"It seems like we've been going through this place for like an hour. Where is this emerald?" Sonic asked.

"Calm down. I'm sure we're closer. Ah! Here we are!" Shadow said. They both came up to a gigantic door. "According to this, the next emerald is right through this door."

It needed both Sonic and Shadow to push the door open. However, the room was dark.

"He-hello?" Sonic said.

They looked ahead. They each saw a yellow Chaos Emerald floating.

"There it is!" Sonic exclaimed. Sonic ran up to it, but suddenly, the lights turned on. They were in a room that was gigantic, covered completely in solid gold. They were in a throne room. There was a large robot sitting in the throne chair. The chair then suddenly dashed away from Sonic and Shadow.

"Shadow, what's going on?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know Sonic, but we're about to find out."

The robot rose up his hand, and suddenly, out of nowhere, many robots came out.

"Oh, so he's sending reinforcements? Chicken." Shadow said. "This'll be a piece of cake."

Sonic and Shadow destroyed the robots like they were nothing. But more came, stronger than the last. Every time Sonic and Shadow would destroy one set of robots, another stronger set would come. There were so many robots that it seemed endless, and that it was taking Sonic and Shadow forever.

"There's so many of them!" Sonic complained.

"Don't worry. I have a feeling we're almost done." Shadow said.

In fact, after Sonic and Shadow finished the set of robots that they were on, the robots stopped coming. Finally, the huge robot got out of the chair and took out a sword.

"I think he wants us to fight him." Shadow said.

"Alright now, let's give it all we got!" Sonic said.

Shadow nodded, and they attacked the robot several times. For a robot he seemed pretty dumb. But he made it up for pure power. Every time he jumped in the air, when he landed, it caused a humongous earthquake. This stunned Sonic and Shadow. The robot then swung the sword at them, knocking them back.

"Argh, he's strong." Shadow said. "Fortunately though I have a plan."

"You do? Sonic asked confused.

"Yeah, now listen carefully."

Shadow whispered his plan to Sonic. Sonic nodded his head every time he understood.

"Got it?" Shadow asked.

"Got it." Sonic agreed.

Sonic took out the green emerald and turned into the thorn plant. But instead of attacking the robot directly, he spun around the legs, tripping the robot. Shadow took a laser gun from one of the other fallen robots and shot at the robots head. But since the robot was strong, it took a few tries to finally defeat the robot. Finally, the robot fell down on the floor and blew up. The yellow Chaos Emerald floated down right in front of Sonic and Shadow. They grabbed the emerald and used Chaos Control to return to the ship. Before they got in, they saw the empire fall into pieces.

"Good thing we weren't in there." Shadow said.

The ship flew off into the distance. Four Chaos Emeralds have been collected, and only three remained.


	15. The Ice Temple

The Ice Temple

The Ice Temple

"We're almost there Sonic!" Tails announced.

"Good." Sonic said to himself.

Amy was nowhere to be seen. Sonic tried contacting her on his walkie-talkie. He got a signal from her.

"Amy, are you there?" he asked her.

Amy sighed. "Yes, I'm here Sonic. What do you need?"

"Nothing. Just where are you?" he asked her.

"Now you want to know? I'm inside the ship. Why do you care?" she said rudely.

"Never mind. I was expecting a nicer answer from you, but since you didn't, I'll just hang up right now. Goodbye!" Sonic said.

He turned off his walkie-talkie.

"We're here Sonic!" Tails announced again.

The ship made a landing and Sonic got out, but someone else did too. It was Amy.

"Hello Sonic." She said. She didn't sound happy.

Sonic turned around. "Hello, Amy."

"What the heck was that hanging me up? You didn't even seem to care where I was!"

"Well, that's because I didn't!" Sonic was getting angry.

Amy was about to cry. "So that's it huh? You never care if I'm away, and you never worry about me? I worry about you all the time! But it seems like that I'm the only one that cares! Well that's it! I had it up to here Sonic! Now I'm really going to run away from you! And don't worry! You don't have to care! I can actually take care of myself! Unlike you!"

"Fine, see if I care!" Sonic yelled.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then turned away. Amy walked off the other way into the freezing blizzard on ice. While she was walking away, she started crying. Sonic felt sorry for her, but still didn't care.

"So, this is the ice temple huh?" Sonic said to himself. "Well, I shouldn't be too cold. After all, I do run faster than the speed of sound."

Sonic sped ahead to the temple, but the blizzard was making it hard for him to see. In fact, he almost ran right into a glacier. However, Sonic sped up the glacier. He jumped from the top and landed on an enemy. Sonic didn't see what it was, but attacked it, and the thing fell down. Sonic got a glimpse of what it was as he was running away from it. It was some sort of snake that burrowed in the snow. There were even snow leopards that Sonic had to deal with. He also had to deal with polar bears, and white wolves. Sonic's feet were getting a little cold, but didn't mind. It was a while to get to the temple. Sonic was skating on ice to get there, he had to outrun avalanches, and he had to sled down steep hills. Finally, he reached the temple.

Inside, it was completely empty. There was a statue of a yeti in back, and the white Chaos Emerald in front of it. Sonic looked up and saw the emerald.

"The emerald!" Sonic went up and touched the emerald. He was about to grab it, but as soon as he touched it, the statue of the yeti was moving. Then suddenly, it came alive. The yeti had pure red eyes, and it was titanic. It roared, and Sonic backed away. It attacked Sonic, but Sonic dodged it. Then, the yeti jumped up, and when it hit the ground, the ice cracked below, and the yeti was on a mini island with water surrounding him. Sonic didn't know how to get to him, but he remembered his new power. He started concentrating, and then he started glowing white. His eyes became white, and his fur turned completely white. He walked over the water, and he realized that he left a trail of ice over the water. He was walking over the water, and he reached the mini island the yeti was on.

The yeti started attacking Sonic with ice attacks, but due to Sonic's new form, it didn't affect him. Sonic attacked the yeti in the stomach, and it was working effectively. The yeti fell backwards into the icy water, and the yeti drowned. The Chaos Emerald appeared, and Sonic grabbed it, and then used Chaos Control.

"That was too easy." Sonic said to himself.

As he returned to the ship, Tails greeted him.

"Sonic, have you seen Amy?" he asked him.

"No, I haven't." Sonic lied.

"Oh, well, Amy's been missing since you left, and I thought you might know."

"Nope, I don't." Sonic lied again. _"And I don't care if we leave without her."_ Sonic thought to himself.

"Oh, and one more thing Sonic!" Tails said.

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"Do you mind if we use the Chaos to power the ship? We need more energy to get through the blizzard, and I was hoping that you wouldn't mind."

"No, I don't mind." Sonic said.

"Thanks. We made another generator in the ship, so if you can take the Chaos emeralds and insert them in the slot, that would be great."

"Okay then." Sonic said. Inside, Sonic inserted the Chaos Emeralds into the slot and the ship started up. The crew was off to find the sixth emerald.

Meanwhile, about five miles away, Amy was still walking through the blizzard. She was freezing, but she brought a scarf, a jacket, and snow pants.

"St-t-t-stupid Sonic. Th-th-th-thinks he doesn't have to c-c-c-c-care!" Amy said shivering badly.

Back on the ship, things were going fine, until now.

"Um, we have a problem everyone!" Eggman announced.

Everyone gasped. "What is it Eggman?" Sonic asked.

"The engine is freezing up! Prepare for a rough landing!"

"Uh oh!" Sonic said.

While Amy was still walking, she noticed lights behind her. She looked up, and saw the ship about to crash.

"Ahhh!" she yelled. She ran as fast as she could away from the ship. It didn't land on her, but it cracked the ice below her, and she fell into the icy water.

"HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!" Amy yelled out.

"That sounds like Amy!" Tails said.

"That's because it is Amy!" Starlet shouted.

"Sonic! We need you now!" Static shouted.

"What, what is it?" Sonic asked.

"Amy's in trouble! You have to go and rescue her!" Cream said.

"Amy's in trouble? I'll get right on it! Hold on Amy!" Sonic shouted. Sonic went to go get the emeralds, but the emeralds were frozen in.

"I can't get them off!" Sonic said.

"No time for that now! Just go and save her!" Shadow said.

Sonic got out and saw Amy floundering around. Fortunately, she grabbed an ice platform so she wouldn't drown. Sonic reached out his hand to grab Amy's, but the ice below Sonic's feet also cracked between Sonic and Amy, separating them. There were many ice platforms that Sonic could step on, and he was hopping on each platform trying to get to Amy. Suddenly, the water by Amy started spinning. She was in a whirlpool.

"HURRY UP SONIC! THE WATER'S COLD!" Amy shouted out.

"HANG ON AMY!" Sonic shouted back. However, Sonic did not know what to do. The only way he could reach Amy is that he would have to swim, but since he couldn't, he didn't know what to do.

"I don't know how to swim!" Sonic complained.

"Sonic listen!" Shadow shouted out. "I know it's hard, but you have to do it for her!"

Sonic looked at the water, and then at Amy, who was spinning around in the whirlpool even faster. Sonic closed his eyes and jumped in the water. It was freezing. Sonic was doing the doggy paddle and he reached Amy. He got on a platform and carried Amy up.

"Alright Amy, you have to hold your breath, were going underwater to escape this whirlpool. You just have to hang in there just a little bit longer, and you just have to trust me!"

"How can I trust you anymore?" Amy doubted.

"TRUST ME!" Sonic shouted.

Amy nodded and grabbed on to Sonic's shoulders, and Sonic carried Amy behind him. He jumped in the water and started swimming towards the opposite way. Amy held her breath, but was feeling dizzy. She started closing her eyes and was fainting.

"You still hanging in there Amy? Amy?" Sonic asked.

Amy finally closed her eyes and fainted.

"AMY!!" Sonic yelled. He started concentrating really hard, and he was glowing blue. He then raced up the water at the speed of light, and then he broke out of the ice and fell on land. He took a few steps, and then fainted as well. Everyone grabbed Sonic and Amy and brought them inside. When Sonic woke up, he was in blankets next to Amy in front of a fireplace.

He looked to see if Amy was all right, and she woke up as well.

"Oh Amy, I thought I lost you! I was a jerk this entire time. I never meant for you to get hurt!"

"Yes, you were a jerk." Amy said. "But I forgive you."

"Thanks." Sonic said.

"Sonic," Amy said.

"Yes Amy?" Sonic asked.

"After all that's happened between us, why did you still save me?"

"Before you left me, you said that you would take care of yourself and you wouldn't get hurt. I wanted to make sure it stayed that way." Sonic replied.

"Thanks. I'm glad I'm with you Sonic." Amy said.

Sonic paused for a moment. "Me too Amy." Sonic replied. Sonic put his arm around her shoulder, and then she put her head on his shoulder, and then she fell asleep in his arms.


	16. The Shadow Steeple

The Shadow Steeple

The Shadow Steeple

Sonic woke up and saw that Amy was still asleep. He saw that his arms were around her and that her head was on his shoulder.

_"Wow." _He thought. _"I never realized how soft her head is. And she has the softest touch." _

He untangled his arms around Amy and stretched. He then yawned, trying not to wake Amy. The fire was still going. Amy finally woke up. She yawned and stretched as well.

"Morning Sonic." She said.

"Morning Amy." He replied.

"How'd you sleep last night?" she asked him.

Sonic couldn't help but admit it. "I actually slept fantastic last night. And you?"

"Best night ever." She replied smoothly. "Probably because I was with you."

"Probably." He said.

"So Sonic, you want to sleep with me again tonight? I mean, you like me and I like you, so, what do you say?" She started running her fingers up his arm. Sonic started becoming uncomfortable.

"Um…uh…I don't know." He said unsure.

"Sonic, listen, I think we should do this, but I'll leave it up to you. It's your decision." Her face started coming awful close to his. To escape it, Sonic spoke.

"Excuse me for a moment!" Sonic said quickly. He ran out of the room. Amy smiled and sighed.

Back in the other room, Sonic was hyperventilating in a paper bag. Finally, he stopped.

"Sonic, what have you gotten yourself into?" he told himself. "Okay. Just say yes. But wait if you say yes, then that'll make Amy want to marry me! However, if I say no, then I'll hurt her feelings again, and I might lose her! So many options, so little time!" Sonic was now pacing at high speeds.

"Well, well, well." A voice said from the doorway. It was Shadow. He was leaning against the wall eating an apple. "Looks like somebody's in love."

"Shut up, I am not!" Sonic said.

"That's what you said when you didn't admit that you were having girl trouble. But looked how that turned out." Shadow said.

"You don't even have advice for me, so why are you here?" Sonic asked.

"Actually, I do."

"Well, I suppose you heard me talking to myself, so should I say yes or no?" Sonic asked again.

Shadow took a bite from his apple. "Personally, I'd say yes. You know you love her. Admit it. You can't keep one minute away from looking at her blue eyes."

"Aha! Her eyes are green!" Sonic said.

"Aha! Thank you for proving my point!" Shadow said.

"Dang." Sonic muttered.

"Alright I'll do it." Sonic said. He ran out of the room. He sat down by Amy.

"Okay Amy, I've decided. I'll sleep with you tonight."

"Oh thank you Sonic!" Amy said. She got up and kissed Sonic on the cheek. Sonic sat frozen.

"See you tonight." She said softly. With that, she walked off.

Sonic was still sitting there frozen. _"Wow. Maybe I do love her. I mean, there was this weird feeling that went through my body when she kissed me." _Sonic thought.

Suddenly, Tails came in the room.

"We're here Sonic! Sorry it took a while."

Sonic got up. "It's alright Tails. It wasn't that bad."

The ship made a landing in some sort of dark town.

"This looks creepy. Are you sure we're in the right place Tails?" Sonic asked.

"Positive. In fact, the reason why it took a while to get here Sonic is because this is another dimension." Tails answered.

"Another dimension? Well then, that's just adds to the fun!" Sonic said.

Immediately, he sped off.

He was running though this ghost town while he was encountering ghosts and many other freaky creatures. He encountered goblins, vampires, and even headless horsemen.

"Looks like Halloween in this town." Sonic said to himself. "Gee I can't wait to see what I'm going to encounter next." He said sarcastically.

In fact, he encountered the most frightening thing he had seen in this town: demons.

These demons were really frightening to the eye. They could disappear, assume other forms (shape shift), and they could feed on other people's souls if they could a hand on the person.

This happened to Sonic many times, but each time Sonic just took out a Chaos Emerald. These demons did not like bright lights, so the Chaos Emeralds were the perfect shield for Sonic against these things. After a while of fighting and running, Sonic came up to this weird temple. It looked like a church.

"Hmm. The Chaos Emerald should be right in here." Sonic said.

Sonic entered the church.

"He-hello?" he asked. The church was so big that his voice echoed throughout the entire church. He looked in front of him and saw some sort of altar. In it was a slot that was in the form of a Chaos Emerald. There was an inscription above it. Sonic read it out loud.

"Real and fake: total opposites

But when the fake is present,

The path to the real will open."

"What the heck does that mean?" Sonic said puzzled. "Better call Tails, maybe he can figure this out."

He turned on his walkie-talkie, and he was able to contact Tails.

"Tails, are you there?" Sonic called out.

"I'm here Sonic. What do you need?" he asked.

"There is this inscription inside this church, and I want to see if you can figure it out." Sonic pointed his walkie-talkie to the writing and Tails got a look at it.

"Hmm. This is very puzzling. Do you think this has to do with the Chaos Emerald?" Tails asked Sonic.

"Possibly." Sonic replied. "Well, I'll see if I can find the Chaos Emerald. Thanks Tails." Sonic shut off his walkie-talkie. Suddenly, the church bells started ringing. Sonic jumped at the sound. He saw a stairway that led to the bell tower. He ran up the stairway, not paying attention to the creaky floor, and entered the bell tower. He looked at the bells, trying to see who was ringing it. But when he got around the bells, he saw that the rope was pulling itself.

_"This is creepy."_ Sonic thought. Then, the bells stopped. Sonic stood there frightened for a little bit. "Now, where is that Chaos Emerald?" he asked himself. Confused, he shrugged and headed back towards the entrance. But suddenly, the door locked itself, and the tower grew completely dark, except for the full moon that shone through the window. Sonic turned back around and saw some sort of demon. This demon was purple and black, and its eyes were completely white. It had sharp claws and feet, and had spikes at the back of its head. It also had a ghoulish tail. Unlike other demons, this one wasn't muscular; rather, it had thin legs and arms. It shrieked and then it disappeared. Sonic had no idea where it was, but something punched him. It was the demon.

"He can become invisible? How will I find him?" Sonic said.

Again, the demon slashed at him with Sonic not knowing he was there. But Sonic was able to see the outline of the demon when he went into the moonlight.

"I see. He can disappear in the darkness, but not in the light." Sonic said to himself. Sonic went into the moonlight. The demon lunged at him, but Sonic saw him and dodged the attack. Sonic quickly lunged at the demon, but the demon dodged the attack.

_"How will I do this? Every time I lunge at him he dodges it. But when he attacks me all I can do is dodge it. I can't lay a hand on him! Unless…" _Sonic thought for a moment, and then his face lit up. He took out the yellow Chaos Emerald and started concentrating. He then turned yellow and black with yellow eyes. He then generated electricity and then shot it out, lighting the entire place for a moment. The demon shrieked at the sight of the light. He became visible and Sonic attacked him multiple times. However, the demon was not finished. He disappeared into thin air. Thinking he was invisible again, Sonic lit up the place again, but the demon was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, the demon reappeared above Sonic and attacked him. The demon laughed and disappeared again. Sonic thought again, and his face lit up again. He waited until the demon appeared above him. He then started generating electricity on his body. When the demon touched him, he became paralyzed.

Sonic attacked him multiple times again, and this time, the demon was finished. It then became nothing but black smoke.

Sonic saw a purple Chaos Emerald float down and he grabbed it. Suddenly, the demon laughed.

"What's so funny?" Sonic asked the smoke.

"Nothing." It replied. "It's just that the emerald you have is a fake!"

"A fake?" Sonic said surprised.

"Yes. You'll never find the real one! Now if you'll excuse me, I must be going!"

The smoke went right through the doorway. When Sonic approached it, it unlocked, and Sonic chased the smoke back down to the altar. The smoke then flew to it, and disappeared.

"That's just great!" Sonic yelled sarcastically. "All this time looking for the emerald and for what? A fake emerald!" he threw the fake emerald on the ground and it rolled to the altar. Sonic picked it up, and got a look at the writing again. Sonic looked at the slot, then at the emerald. "Wait a minute!" Sonic yelled. Sonic quoted the writing to himself.

"When the fake is present, the path to the real will open! Does this mean that if I present this fake to the altar, the path to the real Chaos Emerald will open? Only one way to find out!"

Sonic inserted the fake emerald in the slot. Suddenly, a dark portal opened right in front of him.

"Here we go!" Sonic said excited. He jumped in the portal. He was now in the weird place with nothing around him but purple and black auras around him. Suddenly, he looked forward and saw a mirror. He looked at the mirror, and tried to touch it, however, his hand went through the mirror. Guessing that it was safe, he jumped through the mirror. He ended up at the entrance of the church.

"I'm back where I started?!" Sonic yelled. However, Sonic heard talking outside. When he looked outside, he saw a bunch of people, markets, and animals. He also realized that it was daytime.

"I must've traveled in the past!" Sonic said. "I wonder…"

Sonic thought for a moment, and then rushed up to the bell tower. When he entered, there was nobody there, but the Chaos Emerald was just floating there. Sonic grabbed it, and ran back down. He went through the portal again, and ended up back at the beginning of the church. He looked outside to make sure he was back in his own time. When he saw that it was dark, empty, and full of demons, he knew he was in the right place.

"Chaos Control!" he yelled. He appeared back at Eggman's ship.

"Whew. Now that's what I call challenging!" Sonic yelled.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled. "Did you figure out what that riddle meant?" he asked.

"I'll tell you all about it when we go inside." Sonic said.

Sonic and Tails went inside and Sonic told Tails everything that happened. The ship left, and the entire crew were on their way to the final emerald.


	17. Kidnapped

Kidnapped

Kidnapped

It was nighttime, and Amy couldn't wait until Sonic would sleep with her. Sonic was fatigued, and also couldn't wait to get to bed. However, he totally forgot that he was sleeping with Amy. At first he became a little apprehensive, but then he calmed down a little bit. After all, he was in love with her, no doubt about it. Meanwhile, a dark figure was clinging to the ship. The identity was unknown, but it snuck into the ventilation shaft and slithered its way through. Finally, it reached Amy's room. It looked through the vent to see what was going on.

"You ready for bed Sonic?" Amy asked. "You must be tired after searching for the Chaos Emerald."

"I am, and yes, I am ready." Sonic replied. They each got into Amy's bed and got under the sheets. As usual, Amy rolled next to Sonic. Sonic was starting to feel uncomfortable. She closed her eyes, smiling, and she put her hands on Sonic's arm. The dark figure went right through the vent, undetected, and came up to Sonic. However, Amy opened her eyes and saw it ready to attack Sonic.

"Sonic! Wake up!" she yelled.

Sonic woke up and saw the thing next to him and backed off before it could get its hands on him.

"What is that?" Sonic asked.

The thing hissed. "You don't remember me? Hmhmhm. Perhaps this'll help."

The thing morphed into the demon Sonic battled earlier.

"You again!" Sonic shouted.

"Aww, did you miss me?" the demon hissed.

"I thought for sure you were dead you demon!" Sonic shouted.

"Don't call me a demon! I'm actually a phantom. Second of all, I never die! In fact, you brought me back to life!"

"How?" Sonic asked.

"Do you remember when you were going to find the real emerald, and then you were in this weird place with a mirror in front of you?" the phantom asked him.

Sonic nodded.

"Well, when you looked in the mirror I was able to copy your entire body. And then when you walked through the mirror, I came out the other way, and warped into the present. And so here I am. Now I'll be able to morph into you whenever I want to. And as a phantom, I can morph, posses people, and strike their greatest fear into their hearts."

"Why are you here then?" Sonic asked him.

"Me? I'm here for a simple reason: to kill you and to kidnap a person named Amy Rose."

"Well, you're never going to take her! She stays with me! And you can't kill me. If I could kill you once, I can do it again!" Sonic said.

The phantom cleared its throat. "Perhaps I wasn't clear enough on my strict orders: I **will **kill you and I **will **kidnap Amy Rose."

"What do you need her for anyway?" Sonic asked.

"I don't need her, but according to my boss, he sent me to get her."

"Boss? Let me guess: is his name Cinerate?" Sonic asked.

"Ah. So you have an enmity with him do you? Well then, I shouldn't be wasting time talking to you. Let's start by killing you."

He floated to Sonic and grabbed his face. But Amy got up and took out her hammer.

"Hold it right there! I won't let you touch my darling Sonic!" She yelled. She swung the hammer at the phantom. It made a clear hit in the head. The phantom fell on the floor, shaky. Amy and Sonic hugged.

"Are you alright Sonic?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Now get outta' here! I can't let you get kidnapped! I'll take care of things in here! Go warn Tails!"

Amy nodded and headed towards the door, but the phantom stretched out its arm and grabbed Amy by the leg. He took his other arm and grabbed Sonic. He was holding Amy upside down, while holding Sonic by the face.

"Now Sonic, what do you fear?" he hissed.

"I don't fear anything! After saving Amy from drowning, I no longer fear water!" Sonic said.

"Oh, but don't be so bold. Everybody fears something. People who don't fear anything are the people who are afraid of fear itself. You know the saying: there's nothing to fear, but fear itself. Now it's time to bring your fear to life!"

He then went into Sonic. Sonic then became paralyzed. He started having visions of Amy in trouble, and then he had the vision of when Amy almost died at the Ice Temple. Sonic started screaming and shaking. The phantom came out of Sonic, and Amy was extremely worried.

"What've you done to him?!" she asked the phantom furiously.

"I just brought his greatest fear to life. It seems his greatest fear is losing you."

"He cares for me that much?" Amy asked.

"Yes. Supposedly he loves you and would die if you were gone."

"How's bringing his fear to life going to kill him?" she asked.

"Thought you might ask that. You see, the mind can only take so much fear. When Sonic's fear grows greater, his mind won't be strong enough to overpower it. In this case, his mind can't take it anymore, and it will collapse."

Sonic was still paralyzed and was shivering, but he was able to crawl to the alarm button and push it. Red lights started flashing and there were blaring noises throughout the ship. With the phantom being distracted, Amy escaped from the room. The phantom followed her and jumped right in front of her. She turned around and ran, but the phantom was in front of her again. Everywhere she turned the phantom was in front of her. Suddenly, everyone appeared in the room.

"I'm maybe outnumbered, but I only need this girl." The phantom said to everyone.

"I suggest you drop her now, if you know what's good for you!" Knuckles shouted.

The phantom chuckled in an evil way. "Fools!" He grabbed Amy and then he jumped through one of the windows. Everyone looked outside to try to see her, but they couldn't find her.

"Wait! Where's Sonic?" Starlet asked worried.

They went into Amy's bedroom and saw him lying on the floor. They picked him up and brought him into Eggman's workshop.

"Here, give him this." Starlet said. She held out her hand and she had a single pill.

"What is it?" Tails asked.

"It's an antidote to Sonic's Phobia. If he takes it, it will make him have visions of the thing that makes him extremely happy, and it will calm down his mind."

Tails put the pill in Sonic's mouth, and Sonic stopped shivering and he could move again. He woke up and was confused where he was.

"What happened? Where's Amy? Where's the phantom?"

"There gone Sonic." Tails said. "But we don't know where they are."

"I do." Sonic said. "The phantom said that he was taking Amy to Cinerate. If we find Cinerate, we'll find Amy. And I'm positive that Cinerate's going to find the last emerald, so we just need to find the emerald."

"Alright then. Let's find that emerald!" Tails shouted.

"Eggman, what's the situation here?" Tails asked him.

"We are almost to the emerald fox boy!" Eggman shouted.

They landed on craters, and when Sonic got out, he saw that they were at a place with fire all around him, and it was very hot there. Even the ground was hot. There were geysers and lava across parts of the landscape.

"We're going to help you out Sonic!" Static said as him and Shadow got out of the ship.

"Alright guys, this is the final emerald! There's no room for failure here! Amy is here as well. We will not allow for her to get hurt! Are we ready?" Sonic asked.

"Ready." Shadow and Static answered.

"Let's do this then!" Sonic said. And with that, they ran off in the Fiery Depths.


	18. The Battle With Cinerate

The Battle With Cinerate

The Battle With Cinerate

_"Hang on Amy!" _Sonic thought to himself.

This was probably the hardest place of all for Sonic, Shadow, and Static. The place was filled with enemies (as usual), but these enemies were a lot tougher than the other ones. They constantly breathed fire, which made it tougher for the three. Plus, it was hard to get past the lava, geysers, and volcanic rocks that were constantly getting in Sonic's way. Fortunately, Tails provided the three with Extreme Gear to get past the lava, but there were enemies in the lava also, so the three had to watch their backs.

They even went underground a few times. They reached the core of the massive volcano.

"It's a dead end." Static said as they went on the lava on their Extreme Gear.

"Now what do we do?" Shadow complained. Suddenly, the ground started rumbling.

"Guys, do you hear that?" Sonic asked them. They both nodded. Suddenly, the lava shot up straight in the air and came out of the mouth of the volcano.

"Woo Hoo!" Sonic shouted as he was riding up the lava. He spun around a few times, and then did a few somersaults before making a perfect landing.

"I give that landing a perfect 10!" Sonic shouted.

"Easy for you to say." Shadow said.

"Let's hurry up! We're not that far!" Static reminded them.

They all got off their Extreme Gear and continued running.

Finally, they ended up on a platform surrounded by lava. A figure was standing on the lava in front of them. The moment Sonic saw him, he knew who it was.

"Cinerate!" he shouted.

"So, you three finally made it. Well, no surprise there. I expected Sonic to be here. Yet, I expected you here earlier. What happened to that speed of yours?" Cinerate joked.

"Well, it is hard to get here fast enough with enemies everywhere, geysers everywhere, and not to mention lava." Sonic joked. "Now where's Amy?"

"Calm down she's fine, for now." Cinerate snapped his fingers. The phantom appeared with Amy in his claws.

"Amy!" Sonic shouted.

"Hand over those six emeralds and I'll let her go."

"Why do you want to do that?" Shadow asked. "If we hand them over to you, and we destroy you, which I'm sure we will, we get all the emeralds. Speaking of which, where's the last one."

Cinerate reached behind his back and took out the red Chaos Emerald.

"I hold the last emerald. And by the way, you do have a point there Shadow. If I lose to you, you will get all the emeralds. Phantom, step aside. Keep her in your grasp at all costs. We'll see who's the strongest. You can have your so called girlfriend if you win."

"And the emerald?" Static asked.

"Sorry, but the emerald stays with me." Cinerate said.

"That's not fair!" Sonic shouted.

"But that's what I'm all about Sonic. You of all people should've known that by now."

"You're a monster you big jerk!" Sonic shouted.

"Hello, I'm in the room!" Cinerate joked. "Seriously, you're just plain rude!"

"Ah, yes, where are my manners?" Sonic joked. "Here you are, holding my girlfriend hostage and I don't even say thank you!" he said sarcastically.

"Yes, you really should say thank you. I'm doing a favor for you. I'm taking Amy out of her misery." Cinerate said.

"Taking her out of her misery? Shouldn't I be doing that to you?" Sonic asked.

"Yes, you could, but unfortunately for you, you won't succeed. Now are you sure you don't want give up now? It's never too late to turn back."

"Please, are you kidding? I'm not leaving without that emerald, or Amy." Sonic said.

"Oh well, your loss. Let's do this." Cinerate said.

The battle for the final Chaos Emerald began.

Cinerate started floating in midair. He opened up a pathway and started floating down the path. Sonic, Shadow, and Static were not far behind. Cinerate was known for his quick attacks. He shot flames and icicles at the same time. One of them almost hit Sonic. When Cinerate shot flames again at Sonic, Sonic took out the turquoise Chaos Emerald and used his ability. Sonic was able to dash through the flames easily thanks to his water ability. He then jumped at Cinerate and punched him. Cinerate was surprised at his new ability.

"So Sonic, there's more to you than meets the eye. But this time, you'll be sorry!"

Cinerate engulfed himself with flames and ran straight at Sonic. Sonic was able to dodge it, but it was able to ram Static. Static got furious and shot electricity at Cinerate, but Cinerate created a flame shield that protected him from it. Shadow then used Chaos Control and disappeared. He reappeared behind Cinerate and kicked him in the back. Cinerate went flying towards Sonic, and then Sonic did a roundhouse kick at Cinerate. He went flying back at Shadow, but this time, Cinerate used Chaos Control and kicked Shadow from behind.

He used it again, and this time he went behind Sonic and kicked him. Sonic went flying towards Shadow. Cinerate used Chaos Control one more time, and kicked Static from behind. He went flying towards both Sonic and Shadow. All three of them collided into each other. Cinerate laughed.

"Such futile efforts just to stop me. Don't you have any potential?" He asked Sonic.

"I got some, but I'm just getting warmed up!" Sonic replied.

"Hehehe. So am I." Cinerate said.

They all got up and went after Cinerate again. Cinerate rose up both of his hands, and suddenly, lava started erupting from the ground. Sonic was frantically trying to dodge the attack, but then, he had an idea. He went down one of the holes that the lava erupted from. While underneath, he was chasing down Cinerate. When he was in front of him, he used his grass ability and turned into a thorn plant. He came up from underneath and nail Cinerate in the heart. Cinerate stopped floating. He landed on the ground, paralyzed.

"Now's our chance guys!" Sonic shouted as he changed back.

They nodded, and Static was charging up for a full blast, electrical attack. Shadow turned red, getting ready for a Chaos Blast. And Sonic turned blue, getting ready for a Sonic boom. After charging up, they all released their attacks.

"Oh." Cinerate said who didn't seem worried.

"AAAAHHHH!!" Cinerate yelled as the three attacks hit him.

The trail turned back to the regular platform. Sonic saw Amy, still being held by the phantom.

"Alright phantom. You remember the deal. Let her go!" Sonic shouted.

"I would love to, but I won't." the phantom replied.

"WHAT?!" Sonic, Shadow, and Static shouted.

"That's unfair! You ditched the deal!" Sonic yelled again.

"You forgot one thing Sonic: never trust a phantom!" he said as he laughed.

"You fiend! You will let her go this instant!" Sonic shouted. He was getting furious.

"I choose what I want to do!" the phantom said. He started suffocating Amy. "Now she's going to die!" the phantom yelled as he laughed.

The purple Chaos Emerald started glowing and Sonic started turning purple and black. He clenched his fist and started getting angry. His eyes turned completely white.

"Static, what's going on?" Shadow asked him.

"I don't know." Static answered.

"I told you to let her go!!" Sonic shouted. He started to have a demonic voice too.

He stretched out his arms and grabbed the phantom and pulled it away from Amy. He started banging the phantom around. He then stretched out his body and wrapped himself around the phantom and started suffocating him.

"How does it feel to be suffocated? Does it hurt? I hope it does!" Sonic said in an evil way. After a while, Sonic unwrapped himself around the phantom and grabbed him on both sides of his body and started tore him apart into two. Sonic grabbed the two pieces of the phantom and jumped above the lava. He then threw the phantom into the lava, finishing him off.

"Good riddance." Sonic said and he turned back to normal.

"Whoa, what happened?" Sonic asked confused.

Suddenly, his walkie-talkie started beeping.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Sonic, it's me, Starlet. Listen, you need to evacuate now! I planted a bomb on this island, and it's about to blow!"

"Alright, we'll meet you at the ship!" Sonic said as he turned off his walkie-talkie.

He grabbed Amy and used Chaos Control. All four of them appeared at the ship, at it blasted off before the island blew up.

"Sonic, did you…" Tails started to ask. Sonic knew what he was going to ask and shook his head.

"Oh well, we still have six out of seven. Besides, it's now down below the Earth, were it can't get into the wrong hands."

Sonic looked out the window and took one last look at the island before it collapsed. He saw Cinerate was down and out, and he was sure that he was gone.


	19. The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

As Sonic was walking through the ship with the others, he saw somebody in one of the chairs. Sonic looked to see whom it was. It was the person he didn't want to see. It was Hunter.

"Hunter!" everyone shouted. "What are you doing here? If you're here to try to kill me, you won't succeed!" Sonic said.

"Relax. I'm not here for that. In fact, I'm here to team up with you." Hunter said.

Everyone stood staggered. "Are you kidding? Is this a joke?" Sonic asked.

"Well, no. I told you I'm joining your team. I give you my word." Hunter replied.

Sonic scoffed. "This is a joke! Can the antics Hunter! I know what you're up to!"

"C'mon! Can't you trust me? I already told you I gave you my word."

"Well, I certainly don't trust people who try to kill me!" Sonic said.

"Ah, so the killing thing really drove you away from my trust. Well, fortunately, I came with a backup plan."

Hunter reached behind his back and took out the red Chaos Emerald.

"The last emerald!" everyone shouted. "But, how?"

"I snuck it from Cinerate's hand before the place collapsed, hoping this will regain your trust in me." He threw the Chaos Emerald to Sonic.

"Thanks, I…guess." Sonic stuttered.

"No dice Hunter!" Shadow shouted. "I'm still not falling for these frolics!"

"Oh Shadow. You always were churlish. Seriously, I'm done with Cinerate, now I want to join your team. That's all I ask." Hunter said being polite for a change.

Sonic was pleased to have the emerald, but was still unsure. "I don't know Hunter. I mean, I appreciate you giving the emerald to us, but still, you did try to kill me."

"What do I have to do for you to gain my trust?" Hunter asked.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure. Shadow and I will decide what to do."

"Please, knowing Shadow, I know what his decision would be." Hunter said.

"Then you can start by getting out of my sight and get lost!" Shadow said.

"Can't you be nicer?" Hunter asked.

"No, at least not to you." Shadow said.

Sonic sighed. "Fine Shadow. If you want to argue about this, then I'll decide. Hunter, you can stay with us here."

"Sounds good. At least he trusts me." Hunter said.

**"UNTIL…" **Sonic started. "Until we get back home. When we do, I expect you to be gone by then."

"You're kicking me out when you get home?" Hunter asked.

"Please, you should be thankful. If I left this up to Shadow, he wouldn't hesitate to kick you out the ship."

"Fine, you have my word."

Shadow came over to Sonic. "You don't really think he's gonna' leave when we get home right?" he whispered to Sonic.

"No, but to be totally honest, I don't expect him to." Sonic whispered back.

The rest of the way home, Sonic spent the entire time with Amy, telling her how worried he was about her. Shadow was keeping an eye on Hunter, making sure he wasn't doing anything diabolical. After all, he still didn't trust him. It was a long way home, but nobody seemed to mind. When they finally got home, Sonic rushed inside, anxious to put the Chaos Emeralds in the machine. Just like Shadow and Sonic predicted, Hunter didn't leave, but Sonic didn't mind. This however bothered Shadow.

"Why isn't he gone yet?" Shadow asked Sonic. "You told him to leave, but now you don't seem to mind."

"I don't, but he might be useful for something." Sonic replied.

"Rouge was right. You don't make any sense." Shadow walked away.

"Now, are we ready for this?" Sonic asked everybody.

"Just one question." Hunter said. "Why are we doing this? I mean, Cinerate can't activate his machine without the emeralds, and we have all of them. Plus, he's dead."

"This provides a protection for the core of this planet." Starlet explained. "When it reaches the core, it will provide a shield around it for eternity, so if Cinerate is alive and wants to activate his machine in the future, it won't have any effect."

"One thing puzzles me though." Tails said.

"What's that Tails?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, after Sonic got the first two Chaos Emeralds, don't you think Cinerate made it a little too easy for him to get the rest? I mean if Cinerate **really **wanted the emeralds that badly, he would've at least been there. He never appeared to collect the rest of the emeralds."

"Now that you think about it, it kinda' does make sense." Static said.

"Yeah, but why would he want Sonic to get the emeralds instead? After all, he does need them." Knuckles said.

"That's what baffles me." Tails said. "But who knows. Let's just do this thing. Are we ready?"

"Ready." They all said.

"Alright Sonic. Insert the emeralds in the slot!" Tails commanded.

Sonic nodded and put the emeralds in the slots. They started glowing and the machine lit up. Then, the glowing stopped.

"Did it work?" Shadow asked.

"We'll see." Static said.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking, and the lights in the room were flickering on and off.

"Um, Starlet? Quick question. Is this supposed to happen when the machine is activated?" Sonic asked.

"No, not at all! I don't know why this is happening!" she replied.

Suddenly, there was an evil laugh outside.

"Everyone, outside!" Sonic shouted.

When they got outside, they realized that the sky grew ominous, and lightning was coming down. They saw the figure and they couldn't believe their eyes. They all gasped.

"Cinerate!!" they all yelled. "I thought you were dead!"

"Oh Sonic, you never did learn! I never die that easily! And what a pleasure it is seeing you again Hunter. Now you've teamed up with them huh?"

"Why did he betray you?" Sonic asked.

"He supposedly didn't like the orders I was giving him. But oh well, I don't need him anymore."

"What's going on Cinerate?" Hunter asked him.

"Well, you see the machine that you activated is actually my machine! So now you're doing the favor for me!"

"WHAT? We fell right into his plan all along!" Sonic said.

"How did you switch the machines?" Starlet asked.

"That phantom really served a purpose for me. He pretty much obeyed my orders no matter what. So he snuck in and switched the machines when you guys left. So now all I had to do was let Sonic do all the work for me!"

"That's why it seemed like you weren't even trying to find the emeralds! It was part of your plan all along! You would switch the machines, we would gather the emeralds, and we would activate your machine, thinking it was ours!" Tails said

Cinerate chuckled. "You are one clever fox. I was sure that you would figure it out. But I couldn't be too lazy into finding the emeralds. If I didn't even try the first few times, you all would've seen my plan clearly. But it seems like I tricked you all. Now the world will die, and every other planet around it! Once again, thanks Sonic for doing the work for me. Now, I'm off to the Ark so I won't die here. But I want to get one last look at the world before it blows up into obliviation! Oh, one more thing Sonic: it was nice knowing you, for the while." Cinerate laughed as he disappeared. He reappeared on a high building in the city, watching.

"I'm sorry everybody." Starlet said depressed. "I shouldn't have created that machine. I got us all into this."

"Don't blame yourself Starlet." Sonic said. "You had no idea this was going to happen. Besides, we can still stop those waves from reaching the core! The machine will have to charge to finally release the waves! We can do this guys!"

"I'm with you Sonic!" Tails shouted out.

"Me too!" Knuckles shouted.

"Can't start this without me!" Rouge yelled.

Everyone agreed to help, and they rushed inside to figure out a plan.

"Okay, it'll take about ten minutes for the machine to finally release the waves. We need to get down to the core and destroy those waves!" Sonic commanded.

"No problem Sonic! With the Magma Hurricane we used in the volcano earlier in our adventures, we can dig down to the core!"

'That's good and all, but those waves won't be easy to destroy." Vector said.

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, those electromagnetic waves are so strong, that you would probably need some ultrasound waves at full power to destroy them."

"Also, the core is so hot, you would melt down there!" Charmy pointed out.

"That's just great! How can we destroy the waves without being barbequed?" Sonic asked.

"Beats me!" Rouge said.

Suddenly, everyone's face lit up. They all turned around and looked at Hunter.

"Why is everyone looking at me?" Hunter asked.

"You still got that suit of yours Hunter?" Shadow asked him.

"Yeah." Hunter replied.

"Get it on." He commanded him. "If I'm correct, your suit is able to withstand extreme heat and extreme coldness. Plus, I'm sure that your waves at full power is strong enough to destroy those waves."

"True, but if I have to activate the waves at full power, it'll take me a while, and we don't have that much time!"

Suddenly, Sonic's face lit up.

"Hunter, touch one of the emeralds."

"What? What'll that do?" Hunter asked him.

"Just do it." Sonic replied.

Hunter shrugged and went over to the green emerald and touched it. He felt some sort of surge went through his body.

"Well, how do you feel?" Sonic asked.

"Weird." Hunter replied.

"That's good, now let's go! We don't have that much time!"

"Everyone nodded and went to the Magma Hurricane. Hunter stood for a moment to figure out what happened, but ran off with the others. Cinerate was watching them from the building.

"Hmm. What are they doing?" he asked himself.

The Magma Hurricane dug underground as fast as it could, and it reached the layer above the core in only a few minutes. Hunter got out, and listened to what Tails said.

"Okay Hunter. Any minute now the waves should be coming towards you. Just wait until it comes, and blast it with full power. You got it?"

"Got it." Hunter said.

"Alright then. Good luck. We're counting on you!"

Hunter went down to the core. He saw the brightness and was nearly blinded, but thanks to his suit, it was repelling the heat, which didn't make him hot at all. The machine at Cream's house finally released the waves.

"Hmmhmmhm." Cinerate chuckled. "Here comes the final curtain call!"

Hunter was picking up the waves on his radar.

"Alright Hunter, you can do this." He told himself. He started charging up his sonic waves at full power. But thanks to the power of the emerald, he charged it up to full power in a short amount of time.

Suddenly, he saw the waves coming. He finally released his waves. It looked like it punctured the other waves pretty bad, however, the waves came back.

"Sonic, I need help!" he yelled. "There's too many waves for me to handle!"

"Already got you covered!" Sonic said. But this time, he was Super Sonic.

"How did you turn into your super form? You don't have the emeralds."

"True, but I did absorb the energy from them every time I touched them. That's why I wanted you to touch one."

"Never mind that. Let's finish this!"

Sonic nodded and dashed right through the waves at full speed while Hunter attacked them also. This time, the waves were destroyed.

Everyone cheered in the success of saving the world. Both Super Sonic and Hunter gave each other thumbs up while they climbed back in the Magma Hurricane, happy that they saved the world.


	20. Battle of the Supers

Battle of the Supers

Battle of the Supers

Cinerate looked down from the tower. When he saw that Super Sonic and Hunter saved the world, he grunted angrily and had a look of scorn on his face. But other than that, he seemed pretty calm. Super Sonic and everybody else came up to the building where Cinerate was. Sonic flew up to him.

"Hey Cinerate! Looks like your plan failed! What do you say now?" Sonic shouted.

Cinerate looked at him, still having the scorn on his face. "What do I say?" Cinerate said. "I say: Plan A failed, but oh well. Time for Plan B."

"Plan B?" Sonic asked.

Cinerate took out a little thing that looked like a pen. He pushed the red button at the top, and a giant laser came out from one of the other buildings from afar. The laser shot at Sonic without him noticing.

"Sonic! Look out!" Knuckles shouted.

Sonic looked at the laser, but it was too late. The laser struck Sonic, and then Sonic started losing his super form. Sonic could no longer fly, and then he was falling from a 30-story building which was about 1,400 feet high. Luckily though, Knuckles and Vector caught him.

"What are you planning now Cinerate?" Sonic asked him.

"This laser is able to absorb your super form and any energy from the Chaos Emeralds. Now that you lost your super form, it's time for me to gain mine!"

Cinerate took the energy he stole from Sonic and then he was glowing red. He started beginning his transformation. He was glowing red and turquoise. His gained more quills and the tip of each on was black. His legs and arms were completely covered in ice, and his body and head were completely covered in fire. The back of his body was all black. He had red and turquoise color patterns on his quills. At last, his transformation was complete.

"Now let's see you try to stop me now Sonic!" Cinerate yelled.

Sonic took the Chaos Emeralds and transformed into Super Sonic.

"You think I don't stand a chance?" Sonic asked him.

"Now that I'm in my super form, you definitely don't stand a chance!" Cinerate yelled back.

Sonic flew over to Cinerate and tried punching him, but Cinerate kept disappearing before Sonic's fist even touched Cinerate. Cinerate responded back with flames and ice coming out both of his hands. He shot the flames out like a flamethrower. He did the same with the ice. Sonic nearly got burned from the deadly sparks, but got hit with the ice attack. Sonic was frozen in an ice block. Cinerate came up to the frozen Sonic and starting attacking him. Sonic was helpless; he couldn't defend himself. At last, Cinerate elbowed Sonic towards the ground, and Sonic went plummeting in the ground. He melted from the block, and staggered up. He did a spin dash at Cinerate, but he dodged it, however, Sonic expected Cinerate to reappear behind him, so he did a roundhouse kick behind him. Just as he expected, Cinerate did appear behind Sonic, but was greeted with a kick to the face.

Sonic started attacking Cinerate this time, and was successful. Cinerate went flying towards an antenna on one of the buildings. Cinerate got up and started flying towards Sonic. Sonic decided to kick Cinerate again, but Cinerate ducked, and flipped backwards, kicking Sonic with both of his feet. Cinerate came up again and kicked Sonic downwards with both of his feet. Sonic stopped before he hit the ground and grabbed Cinerate by the arm. Sonic started throwing him up in the air and punching him. After that, he would grab him again and was throwing him around. But while Cinerate was being grabbed, he used Chaos Control to escape from Sonic's grasp.

"Now let me show you some of my upgraded abilities!" Cinerate shouted.

Cinerate started focusing, and then he used an ability called fire fury. In this move, he shot out millions of fireballs that homed in on Sonic. Sonic dodged some of them, but got hit by most of them. Then Cinerate used a move called icy soul. This move was just like his flash shot move, but he engulfed himself in ice this time, and then he dashed through Sonic. Finally, he finished it off with one more move called incinerate. For this extremely powerful move, Cinerate was completely engulfed in fire, but instead of dashing through Sonic, he let out a gigantic fire blast around him that went within a 50-yard range. Sonic yelled as he was being tormented by the strong flames. Sonic fell on top of the roof on one of the buildings. Cinerate grabbed him by the throat and turned his icy hand into a sharp icicle.

"And now Sonic, it's time for **your** final curtain call!" Cinerate said.

Everyone below was terrified to see it, so they closed their eyes.

Cinerate was just about to stab Sonic in the heart, but when his icicle hand reached just an inch away from Sonic's heart, a hand touched Cinerate's shoulder. Cinerate turned around to see that it was Shadow in his super form. Shadow began turning red. When Cinerate turned his head, Shadow put his hand on his face.

"Chaos," Shadow began saying.

"Uh oh." Cinerate said.

"BLAST!" Shadow finished. He shot out a red blast from his body, damaging Cinerate extremely. Cinerate yelled in pain as he dropped Sonic, and Shadow took Cinerate's icicle hand and stabbed Cinerate in the heart. Cinerate gasped, and he fell down to the streets.

Shadow carried Sonic back down before the defeated Cinerate.

"I… thought…I…could…defeat…you." Cinerate muttered. Then he started cursing. "Curse…you…Sonic." Those were his words as he fell completely on the street.

"Let's make sure he's dead for real, to make sure that he doesn't cause any more havoc." Shadow said. "Sonic, care to do the honors?" Shadow asked him.

"Gladly." Sonic said weakly. Sonic pulled off the icicle on Cinerate's arm, and did one final stab to the heart. This time, Sonic left it there. Cinerate gasped quietly, and closed his eyes. Both Sonic and Shadow resumed to their normal forms.

"Is it over now?" Sonic asked Shadow.

Shadow nodded.

"We did it. We finally did it. Now let's go home." Sonic said. They all traveled home, while Hunter created a crater and put Cinerate in it. He then covered it up with the remaining asphalt. He caught up with the group, finally happy that there was no more to worry about. Sonic was just as happy to get home, knowing that his greatest and strongest enemy is now defeated.


	21. The Real Final Showdown

The Real Final Showdown

The Real Final Showdown

Everyone went back to Cream's house, where they started talking and even laughing about the entire adventure. Sonic did not find it funny because he was the one who suffered the most, but he was just glad that he was back with Amy. Amy looked at him and started smiling.

"I'm really glad you're alive Sonic, and I'm glad that Cinerate is dead. We finally defeated him. This was probably your strongest enemy if you think about it."

"Yeah, he was." Sonic agreed.

"Sonic, now that everything's taken care of, and there will be no more distractions, I think this'll be the best time to ask you this."

"And what is that?" Sonic asked her.

"Well, Sonic…" she reached for the ring and grabbed it. "Will you, will you…" she started.

But suddenly, she was cut off by a short tremor.

"What was that?" Sonic wondered as he went down with the others.

"Not again." Amy groaned.

Sonic and his friends went outside to find out what that was.

"It came from over there!" Tails shouted.

They came up to the place where Cinerate was buried earlier. Suddenly, the asphalt was shaking. Then, Cinerate broke through the asphalt and flew up. He looked down at Sonic and his friends. He was completely black, and his eyes were pure red. Sonic couldn't see the expression on his face, but by the look in his eyes, he knew that Cinerate was ticked more than ever. Sonic, as well as his friends were just flabbergasted. Everyone couldn't believe that Cinerate was still alive.

Cinerate was breathing heavily and constantly. He was so ticked that the icicle still lodged in his chest melted. Then, Cinerate took out some sort of emerald in the shape of a diamond. It was colored red.

"NRRRRRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!" Cinerate shouted as loud as he could. Suddenly, a huge vortex appeared, and everybody was sucked into it.

When they woke up, they found themselves lying in some sort of dimension. It had purple auras all over the place.

"This place…I know this place." Sonic said to himself. Suddenly, he saw Cinerate float down from above. Cinerate was still breathing heavily. He was nearly breathing between sentences.

"Recognize…this place…Sonic? Welcome to…the dark dimension." Cinerate said as he was breathing between words.

"How did you survive? We nearly killed you!" Sonic asked him.

"Almost…but not quite. This emerald…that I…have in…my hand…is called a destruction emerald."

"A destruction emerald?" Sonic asked.

"I should've told you about this Sonic!" Static said. "It's my fault I didn't warn you!"

"Warn me about what?" Sonic asked.

"The destruction emerald…was given to me…and Static by…the professor. He gave it to us because…this is…our source of power. He put…the emeralds inside of us…to make sure…it wouldn't fall…into the wrong hands. I'm sure…Static has his."

Static pulled out his emerald from his chest. It looked exactly like Cinerate's, but it was yellow instead of red.

"That still doesn't answer on how you survived!" Shadow yelled.

"Ah yes…how I survived. The destruction emerald…is an emerald…with ultimate power. It can provide…powers that the Chaos Emeralds can't. When I grabbed it…from my chest…it made me alive again…but I wasn't fully…healed. But now…I will use the power…to become the ultimate! With help…from the Chaos Emeralds."

"How will you do that?" Static asked.

"You'll see." Cinerate replied. The Chaos Emeralds floated over to him.

"You're going to transform into your super form again? You do realize that we can stop you again!" Sonic shouted.

"Not my super form…but my ultimate form!" Cinerate shouted back. His voice echoed throughout the entire place. He took his red destruction emerald and put it right in the middle of the other emeralds. His emerald started glowing and suddenly, it was reacting to the Chaos Emeralds. The Chaos Emeralds started glowing, but they were glowing brighter than ever. Then, the emeralds grew bigger in size. Everyone watched in awe at the pretty sight.

"Is…is that?" Sonic asked.

"A Super Emerald?" Amy asked.

"For now." Cinerate said. "Saver this moment…it'll be your last." Suddenly, the emeralds then turned black. Everyone gasped as they changed color.

"What happened to the emeralds?" Rouge asked.

"Beats me." Hunter said. "They look like Super Emeralds, but in a darker form. Like, Super, Dark Emeralds?" Hunter guessed.

"How right you are." Cinerate sneered. "Watch me transform into the greatest and most evil thing you have ever seen!" Cinerate closed his eyes. The Super Dark Emeralds and his destruction emerald spun around him. As they spun around faster, Cinerate started beginning his transformation. He started growing longer arms and legs, and he grew wings on his back. He was becoming titanic. He grew a long tail, and grew a dragon snout. He finished his transformation. He had become a huge red dragon; ten times the size of the Biolizard. He had horns around his head, and spikes down his back, all the way to the tip of his tail. He also grew two more heads. The middle head had his quill pattern.

Cinerate laughed maniacally. "Now do you see that I am the ultimate? This world shall be mine!! I am no longer Cinerate! I am now Ultimate Dark Cinerate!" he said in a monstrous and demonic voice

Back in the real world, every TV screen was fogging up and losing the signal. It then was showing the dragon, Sonic, and all of his friends. Everyone in Time Square was watching to see what was going on. Everyone at home who was watching TV was also checking to see what was going on.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Cinerate yelled. "I am now the ultimate thing on this earth! Nothing can stop me now! Not even your beloved hero, Sonic the Hedgehog!" The screen then showed Sonic.

Everyone gasped. Sonic was getting angry. "I heard just about enough from you Cinerate!" Sonic shouted. Sonic grabbed the Super Emeralds and turned into Hyper Sonic. Sonic was attacking Cinerate, but it was doing nothing. Sonic was using all of his new upgraded abilities from the emeralds, but it was still useless. Cinerate then stomped on Hyper Sonic. Despite Sonic being in his hyper form, Cinerate was still able to damage him badly. Cinerate then wrapped his tail around Sonic, and started slamming him around. After a few hits, Sonic already lost his hyper form. Finally, Cinerate finished it up with a Chaos Spear attack right through Sonic's heart. Sonic fell on the ground in pain. And then, he finally closed his eyes, dead.

"SONIC!!" Amy yelled in horror. Everyone gasped at the sight of Sonic's death. Amy ran over to Sonic in tears. Cinerate just laughed. Amy was now ticked off more than ever.

"YOU MONSTER!! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A MONSTER!! HOW COULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!"

"He stood in my way, therefore, he had to pay the ultimate price. Now you shall pay the price too, little girl!"

Cinerate then lifted his gigantic claws was going to slash Amy. Amy closed her eyes, ready to die, but then, as the claws struck, she felt nothing. It's like that the claws touched her, but did no effect. Something was touching her, hugging her actually. That's because something was hugging her, and in fact, the claws didn't even touch her. Rather, it struck Sonic. With his last bit of strength, he leapt in front of Amy, hugged her, and he took the attack instead of her.

"Sonic, you…you did that for me?" Amy asked.

Sonic just smiled, and he fell to the ground.

"Hmph! He knew his fate." Cinerate said. Amy was sobbing; extremely terrified that this had happened.

"Look at your hero everyone! He's now dead! Now you know that nothing is able to stop me now! I will rule this planet, and take over the entire universe!!"

"I can't believe Sonic's dead!" Starlet said.

"This is such a sad moment!" Tails said.

"I never thought this would happen!" Knuckles said.

"Now we're doomed!" Eggman said.

Everyone was saying the exact same thing. They were talking amongst themselves, wondering how this had happened.

"If we had the Chaos Emeralds, we could probably bring Sonic back to life!" Static said.

"That would've worked, if the emeralds were here." Shadow reminded him.

"Where are the emeralds?" Rouge asked.

"Apparently Cinerate already used all the power of the emeralds, and flung them across the world." Hunter said. "The emeralds are now drained of their power. Even if we were successful to find the emeralds before it was too late, we wouldn't be able to use their power."

"He's right, we'll never win now! It's hopeless! Without Sonic we're doomed!"

Suddenly, a voice rang through the crowd.

"C'mon Sonic! You can't be dead now! I know you can do it! I believe in you!" a little boy said.

"What?" Cinerate said confused.

"The little kid's right!" another person shouted out to everyone. "We can't lose faith in Sonic! We have to cheer him on! We're never gonna' lose faith in Sonic right?"

"RIGHT!" everyone shouted.

"NOW LET'S CHEER HIM ON!"

And with that, everyone in Time's Square started shouting positive cheers such as: "You can do it!" and "Fight on Sonic!"

In fact, everyone around the globe was cheering Sonic on at home, outside, at work, or even at school. In the White House, the president cheered to Sonic as well.

"Sonic, you saved our planet, well, God only knows. The point is you saved our planet lots and lots of times. This time may be tough but I know you can still do it!"

In the mental hospital, Professor Gerald Robotnik was also cheering Sonic on.

"Sonic, it was my fault that I created that awful creature Cinerate. I made a terrible mistake, but I need you, Shadow, and Static to stop him. I know that you three are the only ones who can stop him! This is your moment Sonic, KEEP FIGHTING!"

In Heaven, Maria was cheering Sonic on.

"Sonic, my grandfather is right. You can stop him, with the help of Shadow and Static, but you need to hang in there! I believe in you all, and you three are the only ones who can stop the world from being destroyed! Make everybody happy, and do it for them, and for your friends."

Everybody from around the globe was cheering Sonic on.

"What's going on here?!" Cinerate said furiously. "Haven't I told you that Sonic is dead?!"

Everyone ignored him and kept on cheering.

Both Amy and Starlet were crying, but they were crying tears of joy.

"Everyone is sending Sonic their compliments and their faith! That's so sweet!" Starlet said.

"Yeah and we can't give up on him either!" Amy said. "We need to cheer him on too! C'MON SONIC YOU CAN DO IT! DO IT FOR ME!!"

Everybody else started cheering Sonic on as well.

Meanwhile, the Chaos Emeralds, now drained of their power and scattered around the world, started glowing. Then they all floated upwards, producing a wonderful glowing sight. Then, they disappeared, and reappeared in the dimension next to everyone. The Chaos Emeralds now had their power back.

"The Chaos Emeralds!!" everyone shouted. "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!" Cinerate shouted furiously.

"How _is_ this possible?" Eggman asked.

"It's because of them." Static said.

"Them?"

"Yes. It appears since everyone has not given up on Sonic, the faith in their hearts are amplifying and restoring the power within the emeralds. Now that we have the emeralds, we can use them to save Sonic."

"Yes, but even using the emeralds power, Sonic won't have a chance against Cinerate. Not even his hyper form could even slow him down." Eggman said.

"Hmph! You just leave that problem to me doc!" Static said.

Everyone still cheered on, and the emeralds grew bigger, and became brighter too.

"Super Emeralds!" Shadow shouted out. "Static, use your emerald!"

Static nodded and he took out his destruction emerald, but in fact, his was called a peace emerald. The emerald reacted to the Chaos Emeralds, and the emeralds spun around Sonic, faster and faster. While this was happening, Sonic's life was flashing before his eyes. He remembered all the adventures that he had, all the villains, all the major moments, and most importantly, all of the friends that he made. The most important one was Amy. Sonic started beginning his transformation. He started glowing sky blue, and his eyes became completely white. His gloves became red and black. His shoes turned a darker red, the white stripes on his shoes turned black, and it had blue angel wings on the back. His quills turned upwards, while more quills grew, and those quills pointed downwards. He had a jagged white stripe diagonally down his chest, and his back hairs grew longer. Sonic grew sharp blades on his arms, and then, he finished. He opened his eyes, and flew upwards.

Everyone went insane that Sonic was still alive, but they still kept on cheering.

"YOU'RE GOING STRAIGHT TO THE PLACE WHERE YOU BELONG CINERATE! IN HELL!" Sonic shouted to Cinerate. His voice was amplified and echoed through the entire earth.

"Is that so?" Cinerate asked him. "I don't see one super hedgehog being able to stop me!"

"Make that two!" Shadow shouted.

"Change that to three!" Static shouted.

"Three hedgehogs are still no match for me!! Is that the best you got?" Cinerate yelled.

"Four." Hunter said as he stepped forward. No one expected him to help.

"So, you dare to defy me Hunter?" Cinerate asked him.

Hunter was no longer afraid of Cinerate anymore. "Yes…yes I do!"

"Hmph! Very well! I shall dispose of you all!"

"BRING IT!" Sonic shouted.

Shadow, Static, and Hunter went over to the emeralds and began their transformation. Shadow became neon red with black stripes on his forehead, and his shoes became jet packs. He also had red circles on his gloves.

"Static became completely yellow, and he had quills on his back that looked like lightning bolts. His shoes became generators of electricity.

Hunter turned neon green, and the stripes on his quills became blue. His quills curved downwards and up. His shoes turned into sonic wave launchers. His gloves turned black, and he had a large supply of weapons.

"ARE WE READY FOR THIS GUYS?" Sonic asked them.

"READY!!" they all answered.

They all flew towards Cinerate, and the epic battle of the world began.

They each attacked Cinerate, in which they were successful.

"GAH! HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU FOUR CAN HURT ME?" he yelled.

"NOW WE GOT HIS NUMBER!" Sonic shouted. "TIME TO SUFFER CINERATE!"

Their powers were unbelievable. All of the powers that they acquired were amazingly powered up, none that anyone had seen before. Hunter was shooting Cinerate with his weapons, Static was shooting him with electricity, Shadow could use an ability called Uber Chaos Blast multiple times, and Sonic could use Chaos Control for long periods of time without affecting his own teammates. But Cinerate was still alive, and was getting furious now.

"TIME TO FINISH THIS, ONCE AND FOR ALL!!" Cinerate shouted.

"LET'S DO THIS GUYS!!" Sonic shouted.

They all nodded, and they started charging up a powerful beam together, while Cinerate was doing the exact same thing.

When they were both done charging, they were ready to attack.

"ARE WE READY GUYS?"

"READY!!" they responded.

"UBER CHAOS BEAM, FIRE!!" Sonic shouted. Sonic's team fired a titanic blue beam, while Cinerate fired a purple beam. Each team was battling, trying to overpower their opponent's beam. While Sonic, Shadow, Static, and Hunter were firing, they each heard voices in their heads.

Hunter heard Starlet say: "We're all counting on you to do this guys! Give him your best!"

Static heard the professor say: "You can do this Static! I sent you to destroy Cinerate, so now this is your moment to fulfill your goal!"

Shadow heard Maria say: "Shadow, you must do this, for everyone, for your friends, for me. Give the people a chance to be happy! You're my greatest friend ever, and I'm counting on you!"

Sonic heard Amy say: "Sonic, down here!" This voice was not in his head. Sonic looked down and saw Amy.

"Catch!" she shouted and she threw the wedding ring at him.

"If you make it out alive, I love you, and I want to marry you! Do this for me!"

After hearing those words, Sonic showed a look of deep determination on his face, and then he started focusing really hard.

"LET'S FINISH UP GUYS! USE EVERY LAST BIT OF YOUR STRENGTH!!"

Everyone started focusing hard and then they all yelled at the same time. The beam grew larger and stronger, and broke through Cinerate's beam.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Cinerate shouted. He resumed back to his normal form, and then suddenly, a black hole formed below him, and he fell right into it. But before he was gone, he shouted out his final words:

"HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE?! I HAD ALL THE ULTIMATE POWER IN THE WORLD!! I SHOULD'VE BEEN STRONGER THAN SONIC AND ALL OF HIS FRIENDS!!" Cinerate started cursing again. "CURSE YOU HUNTER!! CURSE YOU STATIC!! CURSE YOU SHADOW!! CURSE YOU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!! I AM THE ONLY FORCE IN THIS WORLD STRONG ENOUGH TO DESTROY HIM!! I AM CINERATE!!"

And with that, Cinerate fell into the black hole, never to be seen again. Now, he had now been destroyed into nothingness. Now, he was finally gone.


	22. Together

Together/Epilogue

Together/Epilogue

"Is it over?" Sonic asked.

Shadow sighed. "Yes, it's finally over."

Everyone roared and applauded now that Cinerate was gone for good and that Sonic had succeeded.

"So Sonic, what do you think you would call yourself in that form?" Static asked.

Sonic thought for a moment. "Neo Hyper Sonic!" Sonic answered.

"Hmm. Good name." Shadow said. "Now let's all get back home!"

Sonic nodded and the four hedgehogs floated down to their friends, in which Sonic was greeted by a hug from Amy.

"Oh Sonic I was so worried!" Starlet also hugged Sonic.

"Whoa! Calm down guys! Let's just go back home."

Everyone nodded, and Sonic used Chaos Control to escape the dimension. News reporters and a huge crowd of people greeted them all. The news reporters were all asking questions like: "How was the battle?" and "Did you feel confident that you would win?"

Sonic was nearly suffocating. "AH! Listen, I'd love to stay and chat, but I did fight an epic battle and I'm really tired so I want to rest.

Everyone understood and they let Sonic and his friends out, but Sonic did tell the crowd that he and his friends would be there for them if there was any trouble. Everyone gave one final cheer to Sonic and his friends, and then he left.

Back at Cream's house, Tails announced that Paradise Island has gone back to normal, and so Tails and his friends were allowed to go back there. As they were packing up, they had a talk with Hunter, Static, and Starlet.

"So Hunter, you coming with us?" Sonic asked.

"No! Not a big fan of vacationing! I quit the hunting business and now I'm going to go around the world, saving people's lives. But don't think this is the last time I'll meet you Sonic! I'm sure our paths will cross again sometime. You just better be ready to fight me when we do meet again."

"Only fate will tell. And I will be ready, friend?" Sonic asked.

"Not a friend Sonic, but not an enemy either. We're now rivals." Hunter replied.

"So long Hunter." Sonic said.

"So long, Sonic the Hedgehog." Hunter said. He took out a smoke pellet and threw it down. When the smoke cleared, he was gone.

"You coming with us Static?" Sonic asked.

"You bet!" Static replied.

"Where are you going to go afterwards?" Sonic asked.

"In the city. I'm just going to wander around, take a first look at the planet Maria loved. But I'm bound to see you Sonic! We will meet most of the time."

"What about you Starlet?" Sonic asked. "Are you going back to be a government agent?"

"Yeah. It'll be sad not to see you as much as often, but I'll try to see if I can contact you."

"That's good. All right guys! Let's go finish up the vacation we started!"

Everyone piled up in Eggman's ship and headed off to Paradise Island. When they finally landed, they rushed out, eager to try out new things on the island. When Sonic was on a hill above the beach, Starlet came over to him.

"You know Sonic, I really am going to miss you when I go back." She said.

"I know you are. I'm going to miss you too." Sonic said.

"Really? You care that much about me?"

"Of course I do! Why wouldn't I?"

"Good point. You probably don't know this, but I love you."

"You do?" Sonic forgot everything about Amy.

"Well yeah. I was smitten after you talked to me at the bar. Oh! Which reminds me…"

She pulled out of her pocket the same cocktail that Sonic told Starlet to keep it cold.

"Why did you take it with?" Sonic asked.

"Well, if you died during the explosion on this island before, this would be the only be my only memory of you. And now, you can have it back."

She handed the cocktail to Sonic. "You know Sonic, maybe it would be a nice thing if we…you know…"

"Kiss?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah." Starlet replied.

"Maybe it would." Sonic replied back. Their faces started coming close and they were about to kiss, but Starlet knew she was doing something wrong. She was trying to steal Sonic from Amy. Before their lips touched, Starlet put her hand on Sonic's mouth and pushed it away.

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked.

Starlet sighed. "Sonic, as much as I hate to say this, we don't belong together. You deserve the person who gave you that ring." Of course, she was referring to Amy.

"Amy?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, her. Listen, you deserve her, not me. It's not right for me to do this. Now go. Go find Amy. I'm sure she's worried about you."

Sonic nodded and sped off. Starlet's eyes were watery, but she felt good because she did the right thing.

Amy was sitting in a chair on the beach, looking at the sunset, when Sonic came along.

"Hey Amy!" Sonic said.

Amy turned around. "Hey there Sonic! What do you need?"

"Well, I just realized that you're the only girl for me, and I came over here to tell you that I do love you!"

Amy was silent for a second. "Sonic, do you remember when the phantom brought your greatest fear to life, and your greatest fear was loosing me?" Amy asked him.

Sonic nodded.

"Well, it turns out that my greatest fear is loosing you, and I thought about it, and I don't want to loose you ever. So, if marrying you is a mistake, then we shouldn't do it. You see, if I marry you, but one day I loose you, it would break my heart more than if I lost you, but we weren't married."

"Amy, I don't think you're getting the point here. What I'm trying to say is…how do I put this into words? Um…what I mean is…ah what the heck!"

Sonic picked Amy up from the chair and kissed her. Amy was shocked for a moment, but then started closing her eyes and enjoying it. The Chaotix crew was watching, with their mouths wide open, and Charmy having a disgusted look on his face.

"Eww! Gross!" Charmy said. Vector put his hand over Charmy's eyes and led him out of there, with Espio following behind.

Finally they stopped kissing, and Sonic had a little box in his hand.

Amy gasped. "Sonic! Is…is that?"

Sonic knelt down on one leg. He opened the box, and inside was a Tiffany's ring.

"Amy, I am serious about this. I do love you. And I know that you love me. If you noticed, I'm wearing your ring." Sonic paused for a moment and cleared his throat. "Amy Rose, will you marry me?"

Amy was completely speechless. She put her hands over her mouth for a brief moment, then she finally answered: "Yes!" very excitedly. Sonic put the ring on her finger, and then she tackled him in the sand laughing. Unbeknownst to them, the entire crew was watching behind them.

"Hmm. I knew that they would get married one day!" Knuckles said.

"Such a cute couple!" Rouge said.

"Kinda' gross if you ask me!" Charmy said.

"No one asked your opinion!" Vector said as he covered Charmy's face. Everyone laughed at the sight, and they saw Sonic and Amy kiss again in the beautiful sunset.

As everyone was leaving the island one week later, Shadow was sitting by himself. Starlet came over to him and sat by him.

"Why are you sitting by yourself?" Starlet asked him.

"No one to talk to now that Sonic is married to Amy." Shadow said annoyed.

"You like Amy don't you?" Starlet teased.

"I do not! You like Sonic, so why are you teasing me?"

"Good point. You really seem like a nice guy Shadow, if you take away the harsh attitude."

"You don't like me right?" Shadow said uncomfortable.

"Well, it depends. Now that Sonic's taken, you're the only guy that's alone."

"I'm not the only one! Static's alone!" Shadow said.

"So? I think you're better. Say, when we get home, before I head back to the White House, you wanna' grab a cup of coffee with me?"

Shadow knew that when a girl asks you for a cup of coffee, that means that they like you and they want to date you. Shadow was not a _charming_ person, and plus, he wasn't that good going on dates, but heck, it was worth a try.

"Sure." Shadow agreed.

Starlet then leaned on Shadow and hugged him the entire way back. Meanwhile, Sonic was writing in his journal:

_8-24-08_

_Dear journal,_

_Today was probably the best day of my life. I asked Amy to marry me, and she accepted! While we were on the island we all did really fun activities together and it seemed like everyone had a good time. Eggman is still my enemy, but it doesn't really matter because stopping Eggman is pretty much what I do for a living. Shadow really has changed as well. He seems to be nicer to Amy and even to me. He probably has been nicer to everyone lately. Returning to the city is tough because after vacationing for so long, I'm not used to going back and fighting evil. But the good news is that when I'll be in the city, I'm sure to see Static there, maybe even Hunter. But the good thing is that when I go into the city now to fight Eggman, I never fight alone._

In the present, Eggman was causing destruction and havoc in the city with his new robot. On one of the rooftops of the building were Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and Knuckles. After seeing Eggman, they nodded to each other, and they ran down the building to fight evil again. On Sonic's finger was the ring Amy gave him, and the same thing with Amy. Static came up to them as well. All together, they were a team. A team that was unstoppable and undefeated. After all, no one could stop the legendary Sonic The Hedgehog. He is the Legend of Speed. He is Sonic.

The End


End file.
